


The Age of Heroes

by ArlyssTolero



Series: Arrow: Rebirth [2]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), Supergirl (TV 2015), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dark, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:00:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 65
Words: 274,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24910462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArlyssTolero/pseuds/ArlyssTolero
Summary: A month after defeating the Dark Archer, Oliver Queen continues to protect his city as the Green Arrow while beginning to reach out to other heroes to begin forming the Justice League. Clark Kent continues to take to the skies as Superman while learning how to balance his life as a reporter, hero, and loving boyfriend. The routine the two have established for their lives is disrupted, however, when new threats emerge.A pod containing a young Kara Zor-El crashes to Earth, dragging Fort Rozz in it’s wake, the infamous General Dru-Zod among the prisoners. The Council of Time Masters seek to correct the timeline and restore Vandal Savage as their champion. Ancient powers awaken, bringing with them a shifting world paradigm that will change the fabric of existence forever.The world needs the Justice League, and the timeline needs its Legends.
Relationships: Barry Allen/Sara Lance, Carter Hall/Kendra Saunders, Clark Kent & Lex Luthor, Clark Kent & Lois Lane & James "Jimmy" Olsen, Clark Kent/Lois Lane, Dru-Zod & Clark Kent, Kara Danvers & Clark Kent & Lois Lane, Laurel Lance/Oliver Queen, Oliver Queen & Emiko Queen, Oliver Queen & Team Arrow, Oliver Queen & Thea Queen, Rip Hunter & Team Legends, Talia al Ghul & Oliver Queen
Series: Arrow: Rebirth [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1770265
Comments: 426
Kudos: 138
Collections: DC Worldbuilding





	1. Preface

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the Arrowverse.

Well. This story is something to make a note of all on its own. I’ve had plenty of sequels to short stories or one-shots, but this is the first sequel to a novel-length project that I’ve ever written. Now, before I get any further into this preface, if you have for some reason _not_ read _The Rise of the Emerald Archer_ , click the back button and go read that story, because there is _no way_ you are going to understand this story without reading that one first. Things were simply changed far too much from the canon in the first volume of this series to try and skip over a volume.

Now one thing about sequels is that the rules are different as I understand it. You want to give readers what they enjoy while also exploring new avenues. The stories are meant to be deeper, more personal. I am trying to bring that to this volume, but we’ll see how that goes.

Alright, let’s get on with it. Welcome, all, to the sequel to what I would consider my time travel epic. Now, some might be wondering why the preface is even needed. You’ve read _Rise_ , you know what to expect, what twists and turns I tend to throw into the mix. Right? Wrong. _Rise_ was a story with a relatively limited perspective, focusing mostly on Oliver Queen and his work, culminating in his exposure as Green Arrow and his becoming recognized as the world’s first hero and the man tasked with founding a new government-sponsored team of heroes. _The Age of Heroes_ is much more of an ensemble story and while Oliver will still play a key role in the story, we will be branching off and looking at the lives and adventures of other heroes. There are three major story arcs to this volume, as indicated by the summary.

The first major arc has to happen before the other two can, so once I finish setting things up, we’re going to be focusing exclusively on Rip Hunter and the new Legends team while they work to bring down Vandal Savage and scupper the plans of the Council of Time Masters for him. The reason for this is because two of the new Legends also play an integral role in _Oliver’s_ storyline and I don’t want to try to balance having two very different versions of the characters being portrayed between the two storylines. Best to get the Legends storyline out of the way so I can do the other two.

I debated heavily on who I wanted Oliver to be facing off with over the lives of the 502 people who were intended to die in the Undertaking. I chose Talia because I had been building up some stuff with her appearances in Volume I and there needed to be some pay-off there, and because it would be deeply personal for Oliver to have to face his former teacher as an enemy even without killing Ra’s. I will say that it’s _possible_ that Oliver deals with Talia and her League before the ‘deadline’ given, which would result in another organization taking over doing the Council of Time Masters’ bidding. I already know who that would be, so no worries that I’ll have to take a huge break while planning it out or whatever. For those wondering, the other major choice (which isn’t the replacement should that happen) was Damien Darhk. But I’ve chosen to save Darhk and H.I.V.E. for another volume.

Superman’s first enemy out of the gate was also something that I debated heavily over. Initially I was going to go with Morgan Edge. Then I considered jumping straight to Lex. But in the end, I felt it would be fitting to have it be General Zod, and I wanted to bring young Kara into the story as well, and so I went to my head-canon that Zod was imprisoned on Fort Rozz and was less-patient than Astra, leading to his confrontation with Superman.

Now, I need to address the portrayals of various characters who will be showing up who don’t have a portrayer in-series (or were one-offs that I’m recasting since Earth-1 is a different universe).

Jon Bernthal will be replacing Michael Shannon as General Zod.

Conor Leslie, who portrayed Donna Troy on _Titans_ , will be portraying Diana Prince/Wonder Woman.

Alan Ritchson will be reprising his role from _Smallville_ as Arthur Curry/Aquaman.

Adrian Chase (the real one), who was introduced in the final chapters of _The Rise of the Emerald Archer_ , will be portrayed by Noah Bean.

Dick Grayson and Jason Todd will be portrayed by the same actors from _Titans_.

Please be aware that, like with _Rise_ , there will probably be times where I take breaks from posting this story because I need to make sure the way a specific arc is going to play out will work or because I need to make sure I’m as steeped in DC Lore as I need to be for this story. To be honest, I planned on holding off on posting this story, but most people probably saw the afterword for _Rise_ promising the new story would be up soon and are expecting it. I have a few chapters written, and maybe once I actually start posting the story whatever is going on with me struggling to write will go away.

Well, that’s all for this preface.


	2. A New Era

The Green Arrow, once more clad in the RQ-1141 Tactical Hardsuit after liberating it soon after his pardon using his new government-authorized status, smirked to himself as he approached the massive spotlight with the metal filter shaped like a bat pressed on top of it, remembering the argument that he had had with both Barry and Kara on the existence of Batman, proclaiming himself to be the ‘original vigilante’ out of frustration. He knew how wrong he had been, now, and he was amused at his own hubris at the time, and the exasperation that Barry and Kara had displayed towards his disbelief regarding the Batman. But now he knew the truth, and he had an offer to make, even if he could already guess the answer. He would eventually approach Clark in Metropolis, but since he was in Gotham on business (unrelated to the Queen-Wayne energy project), he had decided that he should probably extend the offer. As such, he activated the Bat Signal and settled in to wait.

A few minutes after the signal flared to life, the door to the roof burst open and a man with graying light brown hair and a mustache appeared, gun raised and ready to fire. He lowered it slightly as he caught side of the archer clad in green leaning leisurely against the edge of the roof. “What the hell are you doing here, Mr. Queen?” Commissioner James Gordon asked. **_*1*_**

“I had some non-heroic business in town, and I decided it was time the Bat and I had another chat,” Green Arrow said with a shrug. He had long since gotten used to people calling him by his name when he was in costume since he was the only public hero. “I have an offer for him.”

“To join your little government-sponsored team of heroes?” Gordon asked skeptically. “He doesn’t play nice with others.”

“Once upon a time, neither did I,” Green Arrow said with a shrug. “I fully expect him to say no. But as he and Superman are the only ones I know of for sure, the offers have to be made.”

“You’ll forgive me if I stick around and make sure you two don’t try and beat the hell out of each other,” Gordon said, holstering his weapon.

“The more the merrier,” Green Arrow replied with a shrug, before pulling an apple out of the pouch on his belt and beginning to munch on it. Gordon blinked. After so long spending time with Batman, who showed up, delivered cryptic comments, and then vanished when your back was turned, seeing someone with the same kind of theatricality doing something as normal as eating an apple to pass the time was a little odd. Green Arrow paid the commissioner no mind, musing over the fact that ever since that thing with Pebble he had carried an apple to munch on to restore his energy, something that Laurel whole-heartedly approved of and supported him in doing. “So, what kind of problems has he been dealing with? I know when he came to Starling to help out with Zsasz that he was focusing on the mob.”

“Joker escaped from Arkham again,” Gordon replied. “He’s been focusing on tracking the bastard down before he can kill too many people.”

“I wonder if he’ll have the guts to actually do what’s necessary this time,” Green Arrow mused.

“He doesn’t do that, _ever,_ ” Gordon said.

“And every time he fails to do it, the lives of innocents are on his hands as much as those of Joker or whoever has escaped from Arkham,” Green Arrow said.

“If you disapprove of his methods so much, why are you willing to ask him to join your little club?” Gordon asked curiously.

“Because it takes all sorts to make the world go round,” Green Arrow replied, finishing off his apple and tossing the core over the side of the building.

Nearly ten minutes later, Batman soared onto the rooftop, landing in a crouch, and straightened. “ ** _Commissioner Gordon,_** ” he greeted before turning to his fellow hero. “ ** _Green Arrow._** ”

“Batman,” Green Arrow returned the greeting with a nod. “Glad you could stop by. Sorry I used your giant flashlight, but we didn’t exactly exchange numbers last time we teamed up.” He grinned cheekily as Batman narrowed his eyes. They both knew damn well that Green Arrow could have approached him for a private word in their civilian identities. He had wanted Batman in a particular mindset, the vigilante mindset. “I know a man who keeps an eye on things like you do can guess why I’m here.”

“ ** _I can,_** ” Batman replied. “ ** _The answer is no._** ”

“You haven’t even heard my pitch yet,” Green Arrow said mildly.

“ ** _And I don’t need to,_** ” Batman replied. “ ** _My mission is to save Gotham. I cannot let anything distract me from that._** ”

“It wouldn’t distract you from keeping your city safe,” Green Arrow replied. “I’ll still be fighting for my city the same as I have the past three months. I haven’t let what the President asked me to do diminish that. Starling City will always come first for me. But there are always going to be threats greater than any one person can face, Batman. You and I both know of one such threat.” Batman inclined his head in acknowledgement. “I’m not asking for a commitment right now. All I’m asking is that you _consider_ working with the Justice League against threats that are beyond any one person’s fight.”

Batman stared at Green Arrow for a moment. “ ** _I’ll_ consider _it,_** ” he finally said. Batman turned and fired a grappling hook at the highest building, leaving Gordon and Green Arrow standing on the rooftop. Gordon shut off the signal now that the meeting was over.

“He’s not going to do it, you know,” Gordon told Green Arrow.

“Probably not,” Green Arrow agreed. “I know the type. I’ve been that type before. But I came to realize that there are some threats that require a team. Maybe, one day, he will, too.” Green Arrow fired a zipline arrow to the next building over. “Have a good night, Commissioner.”

“You, too,” Gordon said as Green Arrow ziplined away, using his bow to glide down the cable to the next rooftop. He shook his head. “Batman’s one thing,” he muttered to himself. “Cocky archers and over-powered flying men are another.”

**_*DC*_ **

Superman hung in the air over Metropolis, listening to the city. It had been a month since he had debuted, saving the plane that had been about to crash into the center of Metropolis. In that time, he had intervened in everything that he could, trying to show he was a friend to the people of Metropolis. Lois had teased him about being a big softie when he got his third cat out of a tree, but she had also told him she was proud of what he was doing. It had put their plans on hold for the moment, especially since Lois had told him her father was _intensely_ interested in Superman and what he could do. It was one reason why he hadn’t reached out to Oliver Queen as of yet; joining Queen’s team of heroes might mean working with the government in any capacity, and he didn’t really feel like being a test dummy for a paranoid military general.

Another reason was, of course, caution. He had received a text message the night he had saved a plane.

_Welcome to the game, Mr. Kent – OQ_

Somehow, Oliver Queen had known about him. What had he done that gave him away? Was it his support of Queen at the charity gala? Did Oliver notice how gingerly he had held his champagne flute? Who knew what an archer’s sharp eyes could see. Had it been how he held himself? How he walked, how he talked? _What had given him away?_

Superman knew that the obvious way to get the answers that he wanted was to just go to Oliver Queen and _ask_ these questions of the man himself. But something held him back. Maybe it was the same thing that held him back from giving the interview to Lois that she was trying to persuade him to give: fear. While he was willing to fly around using his powers to help people, he was still cagey about revealing the truth of his origins. He had _no idea_ how people would react to the news that Superman wasn’t a man at all, but an alien from an extinct world, and he was admittedly afraid of what the reaction would be.

The sounds of multiple women crying reached his ears and Superman focused, letting everything around them flood his mind. Men shouting in what he believed was Armenian, rough-sounding men, the _click_ of metal on metal as a bullet was chambered. Superman’s blue eyes flew open and he shot towards the shipping yards, where the sound of human traffickers was coming from.

**_*DC*_ **

Cool brown eyes watched as the figure in blue and red shot away towards another part of Metropolis. Lex Luthor stood on the balcony of his office at LuthorCorp, neighboring the _Daily Planet_ , looking up at the sky. Ever since that day when Superman had appeared and saved not only a plane full of innocent people but also all those who would have been killed when the plane crashed into buildings in the center of Metropolis and rained debris on the streets, the world had sat up and taken notice, Lex foremost among them. This is what he had worried over, what he had wondered about. Oliver Queen had given inspiration to those who hid in the shadows but who wished to do good, had given them the desire to step out of those shadows and into the light. There was still no word on where Superman had come from or how he had been granted his incredible powers, but it was obvious he had taken inspiration from Oliver’s work in Starling City. He involved himself in every crime imaginable and even helped little old ladies cross the street and got cats out trees. He was the _ultimate_ Boy Scout.

But Lex worried about what could happen if the power that rested within Superman was ever turned against the people of Metropolis, or towards policing some of Lex’s less-than-legal endeavors. Being the Boy Scout that he appeared to be Superman might well take a dim view on those experiments which ignored certain stringent requirements in order to achieve the end goal of the project. But a man like that _had_ to have weaknesses! He couldn’t be as invincible as he appeared. All Lex needed to do was find out what those weaknesses were, and he could safeguard his research from interfering heroes like Superman and Green Arrow.

At least, Lex mused with a smirk, he had cut ties with Morgan Edge. Superman was sure to come into conflict with Edge over the latter’s criminal enterprises, and if Superman was anything like Green Arrow, he would pursue justice determinedly until Morgan Edge was arrested and charged with every crime he had ever committed. Without proof of his ties to Edge, Lex was home free. It had been a fruitful partnership, while it lasted, because Edge had understood that the ends justified the means. But Lex was a cunning businessman, and he knew what could happen if his ties to Edge had been exposed by Superman or some other enterprising hero.

Lex took a sip of his neat top-dollar scotch and considered what he could do to test who the _Daily Planet_ were calling the Man of Steel and discover his weaknesses. **_*2*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Talia al Ghul stood on the balcony of her quarters at the monastery where the League of Shadows was headquartered, the cold of winter doing nothing to affect her due to her decades of training and experience pushing uncomfortable sensations away. Talia was _troubled_ regarding the reports from the outside world. On the one hand, she was pleased that Oliver Queen had not completely abandoned the training she had imparted on him in Russia, as evidenced by his willingness to kill Malcolm Merlyn and end the threat that the man posed to the people of Starling City for good. But on the other hand, his confrontation with Merlyn had shined a light on the shadows. The world now knew that Ra’s al Ghul and the League of Assassins existed, and whispered the question, “What else is out there that we don’t know about?” The people of the world were beginning to doubt the narrative that societies like hers and her father’s had depended on for their secrecy for thousands of years, and the fault for that could be laid at the feet of Oliver Queen.

And yet… Oliver Queen was her most prized student to date. A near-perfect match for her own Beloved, but with a willingness to kill, making him the perfect choice for her father’s Heir, since she knew that neither she nor her sister would truly be allowed to succeed their father and become the next Ra’s al Ghul. If she couldn’t have the role for herself, than she wanted a hand in the training of the one who _did_ , and finding another who she could mold into the perfect Heir to the Demon would take time, time she may not have depending on how effective the Lazarus Pit was on her father these days. No, killing Oliver would do nothing and would end any chance that she could influence the League of Assassins once the Ascension of the next Heir occurred. She knew that Oliver had to have her father’s attention now; all she needed to do was be patient and wait until the inevitable happened. **_*3*_**

Talia folded her robe across her chest and returned to her quarters, only for her eyes to narrow. She flung a dagger hidden up the sleeve of her robe in the direction of the intruder, only for it to be shunted off to the side. She froze; she knew this man. She had seen him before when she was but a little girl. A robed figure appeared from behind the man, bending down to pick up the dagger, examining it. “Fine craftsmanship,” the man said, testing the balance of the dagger. “But then, I would expect nothing less from the weapons of Talia al Ghul, Mistress of the League of Shadows.”

“I know your companion from when I was a child, but you? You, I don’t know,” Talia said. “First meetings often warrant introduction.”

“True, the niceties should be observed,” the man replied. “My name is Zaman Druce, and I am a senior member of the Council of Time Masters. It is our duty to keep the timeline intact and to police any and all aberrations. On occasion, we also manipulate the timeline to the most favorable outcome, even though the individuals involved might not believe it to be so.”

“What does that have to do with me?” Talia asked, eyeing the armored man, who stared coldly ahead from behind his mask. His eyes were cold and pitiless, reminding her of her father for some reason. But she knew that that wasn’t the case.

“One of the Council’s long-term projects was to ensure the survival of the human race during an invasion by a race called the Thanagarians in 2266,” Druce said. “We have been meticulously manipulating people and events to ensure the man we believe to be the only one who can ensure humanity’s survival becomes who he must. But recently, there was a dramatic shift in the timeline, a change so drastic and altering that it threw the timeline into complete chaos. We’ve only barely managed to regain control of the timeline, and unfortunately, it’s too late to alter the event that took place. The timeline has set.”

“I still don’t see what this has to do with me,” Talia said, trying to figure out how she could take these men out.

“The event that has changed the timeline so drastically was the death of Malcolm Merlyn at the hands of Oliver Queen,” Druce replied. “Queen was meant to stop Merlyn but not kill him and fail to completely stop Merlyn’s Undertaking. 502 people, as well as Merlyn’s son, were meant to die in this event. When Queen killed Merlyn and ensured the capture of Tempest, the entire timeline shifted to accommodate for the continued existence of those 502 people, not only their lives but the lives of all those descended from them. The future we have so meticulously planned out has been destroyed and our chosen savior of humanity no longer becomes who he should be.”

“So, alter the timeline so that it returns to what you intended,” Talia replied. “I do not see what this has to do with me.”

“The Council of Time Masters cannot act too openly,” Druce replied. “We act through our agents, such as Chronos here.” He put a hand on the armored man’s shoulder. “On occasion, we have a minor aberration, where someone lives instead of dying. When that happens, we deploy Chronos and he erases the aberration. But such a drastic change requires a more _delicate_ touch. In this case, we must kill the 502 people who Queen saved by the night of May 15, 2013.” Talia raised her eyebrows at that. That was less than four months from now. “You see our predicament, I see. We cannot have Chronos here charge into Starling City. He is a blunt instrument, and would kill any who interfered, and he may accidentally kill someone who is integral to the timeline if they interfered often enough. Such as your student, Oliver Queen.”

“I suspect I now know what this has to do with me,” Talia said softly. “You cannot act openly against these people, but you need them to die, nonetheless. You wish to contract the League of Shadows to do this.”

“Correct, Talia,” Druce beamed at her. “However, there is a catch to all of this.”

“Which is?” Talia queried.

“As I’ve said, time is a delicate thing,” Druce replied. “You will only have _one_ chance to kill each target. If you fail, you cannot try again without further disrupting the timeline, and should Queen figure out what’s going on, he will move to stop you. It’s what heroes do.” It was said with a grudging respect.

“Why not travel back and simply kill Oliver before he has a chance to kill Merlyn?” Talia asked, if only out of professional curiosity.

“Because Oliver Queen is integral to the timeline, as I said,” Druce replied, sounding impatient. “He is the Green Arrow, the guardian of what will become Star City. But in this new timeline, he is also the founder of the Justice League, and that organization is _vital_ to the timeline we wish to restore. As such, Queen cannot be touched, because without him, there is no Justice League.”

“I see,” Talia replied. “And if I were to choose _not_ to pursue this contract?”

“Then Chronos and I will leave,” Druce replied. “We cannot act against you, as you are also integral to the timeline. But I hope you will make the choice to do this. It will serve the balance, something I know that you are dedicated to.”

Talia observed Druce for a moment before finally making her decision. **_*4*_**

**_*DC*_ **

The steady _thwack-thwack_ of bamboo sticks slapping against each other filled the air of the Quiver as Roy Harper and Thea Queen practiced their A.S.I.S. training passed on from Oliver under the supervision of Sara Lance, who was alternating between keeping an eye on them and putting her older sister through her paces. In the midst of this chaos sat Henry Fyff, who was busy looking into rumors of anything that even smelled like vigilantism or heroes for Oliver, which he expected to have some leads from by the time Oliver got back from Gotham and meeting with the Batman. “Good,” Sara said as Roy managed to land a hit on Thea, who scowled angrily at the fact that the street hood was better at this than her, ignoring the fact that Roy had had weeks of dedicated training with Oliver while she herself had had only a couple of days’ worth before everything had gone down with the F.B.I. “Thea, remember to vary your speed, trip your adversary up. That’s how you land the hit.”

“Right,” Thea replied, disgruntled. “Oh, this is stupid! The only thing I really need is archery, and I already know how to do that! I was doing it before Ollie ever was!”

“Winning some contests as a twelve-year-old is a far cry from firing an arrow at a real person, Thea,” Sara said, already feeling the migraine that was beginning to build. While Thea was all submissive and quiet with her brother, when it came to Sara or Laurel, she zoomed right into bitch mode and stayed there until she got slapped down hard. Sara knew it was just Thea reacting to the threat she was under if she _didn’t_ train under Oliver and join him in his work as Green Arrow, but she worried about what was going to happen when things finally boiled over. If Sara were honest, she didn’t think that Thea was cut out for this, and that all Ollie had done was delay the inevitable. One day, Thea was going to snap and storm off, and when that happened, whoever the League had sent to monitor the situation would grab her and take her to Nanda Parbat, where she would probably die within a week, whether by her own hand or the hand of one of the more violent men who sought her for _servicing_.

“I’m a good archer,” Thea said mulishly.

“Alright,” Sara said, moving to a small black case and opening it. Inside was a red bow with yellow highlights and a quiver of arrows. “Oliver wanted to wait until he felt you had a good grounding in the basics, but since you’re so much better than us mere mortals, little miss, why don’t you try and take me down a peg or two?” She pulled the bow and quiver out of the case and handed them to a shocked Thea. “These are training arrows. I’m going to go over there,” she pointed to the far side of the room, “and come at you. _You_ are gonna use your master archery skills to hit me with at least _one_ arrow. If you do that, you can stop stick-fighting. Fair deal?”

“I’ll try not to hit you in the eye,” Thea snarked back, snagging the quiver and bow, hoisting the former around her torso and getting a feel for the bow. Laurel and Roy moved off to the side, out of the range of fire, while Sara got into position. Thea drew an arrow and fired without giving any warning; it sailed down towards Sara, who began to run forward and snagged the arrow out of the air, throwing it aside, and then catching the next one. Thea drew arrow after arrow, firing at a different part of Sara’s body each time to try and throw the older woman off-balance, but Sara caught almost every arrow, dodging or leaping over those she didn’t catch, until finally she disarmed Thea of her bow and most recent arrow, knocked Thea flat on her back, and made a slight scratch on Thea’s cheek with the arrow she had just taken from her. “You-You said those were training arrows!” Thea said, her voice higher than normal.

“They’re arrows and you train with them,” Sara shot back before standing and putting out a hand for Thea to grab. The teenager reluctantly did so.

“I could have _hurt_ you,” Thea said.

“No, you couldn’t have,” Sara said. “I was trained by the people who your brother _saved your life_ from. Every last one of them is a master archer, like Ollie. You are a _novice_ , Thea, and this job is just as much about reflexes and training your muscle memory as it is about firing arrows. The training you and Roy are going through? That trains your reflexes and your muscle memory, making you quicker and more agile. You’re not ready for the streets. Neither is Roy. But one day, you both will, and you’ll join Oliver in what he’s doing.” **_*5*_**

“Nice words from the woman who doesn’t do shit for the city except sell flowers,” Thea groused.

Sara had had enough, and she slapped Thea across the face. Thea’s hand shot to her cheek, hazel eyes welling with tears. Roy looked uncomfortable, while Laurel stepped forward hesitantly. “Who was it that cut you loose and got you out of that warehouse where your psychopath of a father had you and was planning to kill you, again?” Sara asked. Thea flinched. “And for the record, I have gone out recently. I had a promise to fulfill.” She gave a nasty smile. “There are a lot of Russians wishing they had never tangled with the Lance sisters right about now.” Thea shuddered at the smile Sara gave and decided it was time to stow the attitude before Sara turned that kind of attention on her. “Enough training for one night,” Sara said.

Roy, Laurel, Thea, and Sara left the Quiver soon after, and Henry gave a sigh of relief. “Finally,” he muttered. “No more listening to Teen Spice throwing a fit.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* For those wondering, I’m picturing Ben McKenzie from “Gotham”, specifically how he looked in the finale with the mustache, though with graying hair.
> 
> *2* I get the feeling that writing Lex in this story is going to be like writing Malcolm: I’m going to feel the need to shower afterward.
> 
> *3* IMO, Talia hunted down Oliver and trained him because he was practically a mirror to Bruce, only unlike Bruce he’s willing to kill when necessary, thanks to Talia. I think she *wanted* him to get Ra’s’ attention and her real problem with him was that he threw away the power offered to him as Heir to the Demon after all the effort she put into making him worthy of the title. At least, that’s my head-canon.
> 
> *4* From the beginning of “Rise”, I knew that after Malcolm was killed, I was going to have the Council of Time Masters be the next major adversary for Oliver, albeit through intermediaries.
> 
> *5* I wanted to do something different and showcase just how unprepared Thea is. People always bring up the fact she had archery trophies. But hitting an immobile target as a 12-year-old is a hell of a lot different from hitting a mobile, agile, and living target intent on kicking the shit outta you.


	3. Bonds

“Mr. Queen! Mr. Queen!” Oliver Queen ignored the shouts of his name from the press that were almost permanently camped outside of Queen Consolidated these days as he pulled his Camaro into the tunnel leading to the underground parking garage. The press always wanted a soundbyte from him these days, and considering he had just been to Gotham City, he could imagine what the questions would be about. But he respected Batman’s preference for the shadows and wouldn’t expose the man unnecessarily. If someone asked if he had recruited the Batman for his team of heroes, he would issue a “No comment” out of respect for Batman’s preferences. It was the least he could do to show he wasn’t going to push or pressure the man on the subject.

Oliver pulled into his assigned parking spot and got out of the car, closing and locking it behind him. He headed for the elevator, giving a nod to the security guard stationed there, who nodded back with a, “Mr. Queen.” He had been forced to hire security for the parking garage after a couple of enterprising bloggers had managed to sneak past the security booth and get into the elevator. They had managed to make it all the way up to the C.E.O.’s office without being found out, having dressed the part and looking like your average Queen Consolidated employee. Their reason for trespassing and barging into Oliver’s office? They wanted to know what materials were used in the RQ-1141. Suffice to say he had had them both escorted out of the building. He sure as hell wasn’t about to release _that_ kind of information to the general public. As it was, he was still trying to track down Dr. Briggs. The man was remarkably difficult to find.

Oliver rode up to the administrative level and exited the elevator, chuckling dryly as he found his sister, Emiko Adachi, waiting for him in a smart black pantsuit and blouse. “Something happen in Applied Sciences while I was away?” he asked as he turned towards his office, Emiko falling into step beside him.

“A young man showed up yesterday, claiming that you had made him an offer while you were in Central City a couple of months ago,” Emiko said. “Cisco Ramon?”

“Ah, I was wondering if he would show up,” Oliver replied. “How did his interview go?”

“Interview?” Emiko asked with a frown. “He has no degrees, Oliver, no specialized training. I turned him away.”

Oliver sighed. “I recruited him _because_ he has none of those things,” he informed his sister. “I recruited him because I wanted someone without biases, someone whose mind was completely open to new, innovative ideas. Did he leave any contact information?”

“He filled out a general application when it became clear we weren’t going to just bring him into the fold,” Emiko said. “Oliver, I have to ask: is this a Queen Consolidated hire, or a Green Arrow hire? Because if it’s the latter, you should probably hire him for the government task force you’ve been put in charge of, such as it is.”

“I believe Cisco can do more for the world at Queen Consolidated than working for a barely-functioning task force that is currently comprised of one man,” Oliver said dryly as he opened the door to his office. “You are trained to think within the limits of what you learned at school, Emiko. So is every last person in the Applied Sciences division, even my other hire from Central City, Barry Allen. Cisco is a brilliant young man who can see things others can’t because they’ve been trained to think a certain way.” Oliver sat behind his desk. “I understand that this may not be something you feel you can do, Emiko, but please try to make the effort to see the potential Cisco Ramon has.”

“You really want to recruit him, even though you have no idea how well he’ll work out, don’t you?” Emiko said, staring hard at her brother.

“One of the few things that our father passed onto me that I’m proud of is an eye for talent,” Oliver replied.

“Speaking of family,” Emiko said, her voice reluctant, “have you told Thea about me yet?”

“No,” Oliver said. “I keep trying to, Emiko, but I know how she’s going to feel, especially when she finds out I went to see you the day she ran away to Metropolis instead of coming after her. She’ll think I’m replacing her with you.”

“And are you?” Emiko couldn’t help but ask.

“No,” Oliver replied. “You are barely a year younger than me, Emiko. You and I have a very different relationship. We’re partners, and very soon, everyone in this building is going to know that you’re a Queen. Jean’s got us a docket before a judge to get the paperwork processed in a few days. So, I guess I have until then to tell Thea so that she’s not blind-sided. Thea, on the other hand, is my baby sister, someone I want to protect as much as I can, but I have to balance that out with my work as Green Arrow. There’s also the fact that you accept I am the Green Arrow and always will be, while Thea still struggles. Our relationship is very different. I’m not replacing Thea with you, just as I couldn’t replace you with her. You’re two separate people who happen to be my sisters.”

“Would it help if I was there to take the brunt of her anger?” Emiko offered.

“It’s kind of you to offer, but no, if Thea’s going to be angry, she’s not going to take it out on you,” Oliver said. He brought up Cisco’s application on the company server. “I’ll call Cisco and bring him back down here. I’ll give him the tour myself, if you would feel uncomfortable doing it after sending him packing.”

“I would appreciate it,” Emiko said. “I’m sorry I didn’t call you, but all I saw was the lack of degrees and training and couldn’t help but wonder if that was your inexperience showing. No offense,” she added quickly.

“None taken,” Oliver laughed, snatching up his phone. Emiko smiled in thanks and headed out the door as Oliver dialed the number provided.

“Cisco Ramon,” came the voice of the man who would one day be able to see parallel timelines and open breaches to other Earths.

“Cisco, this is Oliver Queen,” the C.E.O. vigilante said in response. “My head of Applied Sciences told me about what happened yesterday. I’m sorry for the confusion. If you can come down sometime today, I’ll give you the tour myself. My mind hasn’t changed since we spoke last. I still want you as part of the Queen Consolidated family.”

“Thanks,” Cisco said gratefully. “I’ll be there around one if that’s okay.”

“That is definitely okay, Cisco,” Oliver replied. “I’ll see you then. Come directly to my office.” He looked out the window and noticed that Mark Snow was talking to two men he hadn’t expected to see here. “I’m sorry, Cisco, it looks like I have something I need to deal with. See you at one.” **_*1*_**

“See you then,” the tech genius said cheerfully. Oliver hung up and then hit the speed dial for his Executive Assistant’s phone.

“Mr. Queen?” Mark Snow’s startled voice asked.

“Send in the detectives, Mark,” Oliver said and then hung up. He watched as Mark spoke with Detectives Quentin Lance and Lucas Hilton, pointing towards the office. The detectives entered, the glass doors swinging shut behind them. “Detectives, how can I help you today?”

“We’ve been _advised_ to seek your opinion on a case,” Quentin said grudgingly. “There was a massive fire in the Glades you might have heard about?” Oliver nodded, trying to figure out why this was sounding so familiar. “We lost a firefighter there. The thing is, according to the report, he burned hotter than the fire around him, which shouldn’t be possible.” Quentin handed a file over to Oliver, who took it, even as he remembered why this sounded familiar. _Garfield Lynns_. But from the sounds of it, this was the first one. Oliver wished he had remembered this sooner, but maybe he could save the rest before Lynns took his revenge.

Oliver looked over the file. “I don’t see why you needed my eye on this, Detective Lance,” he said. “It seems a pretty straight-forward case of murder. Someone doused the fire fighter with an accelerant, which burnt hotter and faster than the flames around him. So why don’t you tell me why you’re _really_ here?”

Quentin sighed. “The commissioner wants the department to work closely with the Green Arrow, present a united front to the people of Starling City,” he said.

“In other words, Nudocerdo wants to capitalize on what I can bring to the table and make himself look good in the process because he’s one bad day away from being axed for corruption,” Oliver replied. Quentin grimaced but said nothing; he still had to earn a living, after all. “That explains why you brought the case to me, but not why it’s the two of you specifically. Why not the detectives from Arson?”

“Commissioner wants Quentin to be your point of contact in the department since you and he have history,” Lucas replied after Quentin refused to. It went without saying that, as Quentin’s partner, Lucas was along for the ride.

“I see,” Oliver said. “Well, I’ll look into this, see what I can find out. With any luck, this was a one-off revenge killing and not the start of something else. I’ll contact you if I come up with anything, Detective.”

“Thanks, Queen,” Quentin said grudgingly, and both he and Lucas left the office. Oliver sighed. This was certainly going to be interesting, having Quentin be his _official_ contact instead of an unofficial ally who would be under threat of arrest for working with a vigilante. Oliver looked down at the file. _Where are you, Lynns?_ He thought to himself, even while planning to make sure to have an injection arrow filled with tranquilizer ready. He wasn’t going to let the man die this time if he could help it. **_*2*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver entered the loft late that afternoon, still smiling from the time spent with Cisco Ramon, who it turned out was like the ultimate fanboy of both Green Arrow and Superman. Cisco had an infectious charm about him that helped soothe over any ruffled feathers, and Oliver was sure that he and Barry had hit it off rather well. He had known that his friendship with Cisco was something that Barry prized, and at least Oliver could put things in motion for that friendship to blossom under new circumstances. Sadly, the last he had heard, Caitlin Snow had quit S.T.A.R. Labs and was now using the funding that Harrison Wells had bequeathed her to run her own experiments. Considering what Barry had told him, Oliver was concerned what this would mean for Caitlin if and when her _other_ side manifested itself. Her connections to her humanity through Barry and Cisco had kept her from becoming Killer Frost. Without those, Oliver was afraid that the woman he knew would be lost when her other half came out to play, perhaps for good, and her icy half didn’t have _any_ connections to humanity either.

Oliver was pulled from his thoughts by a pointed cough. He turned to see Thea at the counter, school blazer hanging off of the back of the bar stool she was sitting on as she did her homework, a glass of orange juice sitting nearby. Oliver’s eyes zeroed in on the slight scratch on his sister’s face. He frowned. “You don’t get scratches from stick fighting,” he said. “Bruises, yes. Scratches, no. What happened?”

“I…” Thea began, hesitating. Oliver’s eyes narrowed, and Thea knew better than to lie to him now. “I antagonized Sara last night. She had me shoot arrows at her and she basically told me to grow up.”

“I see,” Oliver said. “I’m not going to ask what exactly you said because I’m guessing it’ll piss me off.” Thea flinched at that. “All I’m going to do is remind you that this training I’m putting you through is the only thing keeping you from the League of Assassins. God knows what’s happening to Tommy at the moment.”

“Do you think they’re hurting him?” Thea asked in a small voice.

“Yes,” Oliver replied, and Thea flinched at the matter-of-fact way he said it. “The League trains its assassins to ignore pain by constantly torturing them until they’re toughened up. I loved Tommy, Thea, but if we ever see him again… he’s not going to be the same. He’s going to be like Malcolm.” Thea flinched again. “I just want you to be ready so if you’re ever faced with him, you know what to expect. I wish I could protect you from all of this, Speedy. But I can’t. Not without seeing you hurt far worse than a scratch on the cheek.”

“I know,” Thea said in the same small voice.

“There’s something we need to talk about, Thea,” Oliver said. Thea turned to look at him as he leaned against the island counter, across from her. “Dad told me a lot of things on the life raft before he died. One of those things he told me is that we- that _I_ have another sister. He had an affair with a woman while Mom was pregnant with me. That resulted in a pregnancy as well. When Dad asked me to right his wrongs, I _know_ he also meant those done to this woman and her family.”

“You have another sister?” Thea asked painfully, even as a flash of rage shot through her. Oliver had another sister, one who shared his father’s DNA instead of their mother’s, and he had been hiding this woman from her?

“Her name is Emiko Adachi,” Oliver said quietly.

“Your head of Applied Sciences?” Thea asked in disbelief, remembering Oliver mentioning an ‘Emiko’ to Laurel when talking about Queen Consolidated at dinner one night.

“Yes,” Oliver said. “I’ve been trying to find the right time to tell you, because in a few days, we’re going to have the paperwork processed to officially give her the Queen name.”

“So,” Thea sniffed, “you’re replacing me? Because I’m not good enough? Because I’m not actually a Queen?”

“No, Speedy, that’s not it at all,” Oliver told his sister. “Emiko is barely a year younger than me. We have a different relationship. You are _always_ going to be my baby sister, and I am always going to love you. But if I’m going to have my family, I’m going to have _all_ of my family, at least those that I can. That includes both you and Emiko.”

“Emiko, me, Samantha and William,” Thea rattled off. “Dad tell you about any other surprise relations we should be worried about coming out of the woodwork?”

“No,” Oliver said. “But considering how often Dad got around… we should be prepared for the possibility. As it is, thanks to Emiko, we’re going to deal with hundreds of false claims of being Dad’s illegitimate kid, just like there’s hundreds of women claiming paternity for their kids for me. I just wanted to make sure you knew, so you didn’t get blindsided.”

Thea nodded jerkily but gathered up her homework and headed upstairs to her room. Oliver sighed. He knew a part of this was because he still hadn’t given Thea back her trust fund, and now she found out he was bringing in someone who actually had Queen blood in her veins and who was _working_ with him at the company. But he also knew that it was also just more of the same teenage angst that had been a part of Thea’s attitude since their mother and Walter had died. Unfortunately, he had no idea how to deal with this sort of thing because William had gone to live with his grandparents just as he was starting to show this sort of behavior. The most experience he had with this kind of thing was the stand-offish and closed off way Mia had behaved with him during their short time together, and by then, Mia had been twenty.

Oliver sighed. Being the guardian of a teenager, especially a teenage girl, was its own brand of torture. He had a new appreciation for why his mother had just let Thea do her own thing all these years.

**_*DC*_ **

Dinah Laurel Lance rubbed the side of her left hand, where a jagged pink scar had formed over where the Huntsman had bitten off a piece of her. She internally shuddered as she remembered with perfect clarity the sound of him chewing and then swallowing that piece of her. His words to her still reverberated in her head. “ _Just as I suspected. You are delicious, little bird. I am going to enjoy carving you up._ ” It frightened her, that someone so dark and twisted could exist, that they could have seen her as nothing but a slab of meat, to be seasoned, cooked, and carved up like a holiday roast.

Shaking her head to clear away her memory of that night for the moment, Laurel clenched her left hand to stop it from trembling before beginning to go over her paperwork again. A few minutes later, there was a light tapping on the glass doors of her office. She looked up to see Adrian Chase standing on the other side. She waved him in. “Adrian, what can I do for you?” she asked warmly. She remembered how Adrian had tried, however futilely, to save the life of Joanna de la Vega, her best friend from law school who had been shot at point-blank range in the stomach by mercenaries hired by Malcolm Merlyn to abduct her.

“I’m having trouble with the investigator we hired for the Frederickson case,” Adrian replied. “He’s suddenly asking for more money. But I’ve already spent the amount allotted for this case aside from what’s earmarked for the investigator.”

“Give me his name and number, I’ll give him a call,” Laurel said. Adrian handed over a slip of paper with a name and number scrawled on it before leaving her office. _No time like the present,_ she mused to herself before picking up her office phone and dialing the number. She waited patiently as the phone rang on the other end.

“Hiram Skinner,” came a gravelly voice, one she would bet was play-acted to make the owner sound more like one would expect a P.I. to sound like.

“Mr. Skinner, this is Laurel Lance at C.N.R.I.,” she said calmly. “I’ve just had a very distressing conversation with one of my attorneys. He says you’re holding the results of your investigation out for more money.”

“That’s right,” Skinner sneered at her, the gravelly voice dropping. “I’m not risking my life for a pittance.”

“You’re not risking your life at all, Mr. Skinner,” Laurel said frostily. “I am fully aware of the details of every case my people are working, and the one you were assigned to find information on is a clear-cut case of a slum-lord charging exorbitant prices for grimy holes in the wall. Need I remind you that my boyfriend is the Green Arrow, and he takes a dim view of people who try to profit from the suffering of others?”

There was a dead silence on the other end. Then… “I’ll send what I got over,” Skinner huffed. “Don’t come to me again.”

“Don’t worry, we _won’t_ ,” Laurel replied. “I’m sure there are more reputable investigators than you at work in Starling City.” _Including one I have on speed dial who likes to put arrows into scum like you,_ she added silently in her head as she hung up. She caught Adrian’s eye through the glass doors and gave him a nod and a smile. He returned the gesture before focusing on his paperwork. Laurel followed suit, glad that she was useful for _something_. She knew that she had beat the Huntsman, and that she was doing good work at the head of C.N.R.I., but a part of her wished she could be out there with Oliver. But she wasn’t ready yet, though Sara had told her she was getting through the training the League put their agents through at a rapid pace. One day, though, she was going to have Oliver’s back, the way he had had hers the past few months. **_*3*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver had just finished a patrol as the Green Arrow, stopping a few muggings and a bodega robbery, and returned to the Quiver to find Thea, Roy, Laurel, and Sara hard at work training. For a moment, he had a sense of nostalgia. These four represented core members of his teams in the original timeline. If not for the fact that the Quiver was absent Diggle’s checking over their arsenal and Felicity’s nattering about some inane techno topic, Oliver could almost imagine he was watching a scene from a few years from now.

But there were other things that took away from the nostalgia, such as the lack of flirtations between Thea and Roy. Roy was absolutely dedicated to becoming Arsenal and trained every chance he got while Thea trained reluctantly, and Oliver was admittedly concerned with what was going to happen when she turned eighteen next week. He knew she had been saving the allowance he gave her each week instead of spending it, and he had an awful feeling she was going to try and run away to Metropolis again. Problem was, once she was eighteen, he had no right to keep her here.

As a result of their opposing views on Oliver and his mission, there was little chance of Roy and Thea becoming an item in this timeline. As Thea’s big brother, Oliver was conflicted because he shouldn’t be wanting to see his little sister with anyone, but he remembered how happy she had been with Roy, and it pained him that his sister might not find that happiness in this timeline because of the changes wrought in her by the deaths of their mother and Walter.

Meanwhile, Laurel and Sara were training in hand-to-hand, Sara showing Laurel the next move from the League’s handbook used to debilitate a foe. Oliver stood watching Laurel for a moment. She was in her form-fitting exercise clothes, a pair of tight sweats and a tank top that clung to her, sweat glistening on her pale skin. Her expression was determined as she processed what Sara was teaching her and tried it for the first time. While he admired Laurel’s dedication, he worried it was coming from the wrong source. They spent enough nights together for him to know that Laurel still struggled with a recurring nightmare about the Huntsman and what he could have done to her.

More than once, Oliver had had to hold Laurel as she woke sobbing, her tears soaking his chest. So, he could understand if Laurel was throwing herself into training to run from her memories. It was a different sort of addiction from her substance abuse in the previous timeline, but still an addiction. She was running high on the adrenalin of learning everything that she could about fighting, and Oliver didn’t know what would happen when she finally finished everything that Ted, Oliver, and Sara had to teach her. A time he thought was fast approaching.

Oliver broke out of his musings and set his bow up on its stand, slinging his quiver down to rest beside it. “Looks like you’re all doing very well,” he said, drawing the attention of those training. “But there is such a thing as training too much. You were training for an hour before I left, and I’ve been gone three hours. I think that’s enough for one night. You all need rest, and so do I.” Thea grunted and headed for the towels waiting nearby, Laurel following a moment later. Roy and Sara watched them go, Roy with a sense of disdain towards Thea’s attitude and Sara with a hint of concern about Laurel’s dedication. Oliver stepped up beside Roy and Sara. “Everyone trains differently,” he said softly. “Where Thea is reluctant, Laurel is too eager. You both need to work on gauging their attitude and deciding if it’s time to stop training.”

“Your sister’s a piece of work, Oliver,” Roy said. “I could swear she was trying to break my jaw a couple of times.” Oliver looked at him, and Roy raised his hands defensively. “Just saying she’s got some serious anger issues and I’d like to keep all my teeth.”

“Perhaps next time, you and I will train while Sara supervises Laurel and Thea,” Oliver decided.

“Sounds fun,” Sara said dryly.

**_*DC*_ **

Later that night, Laurel rolled off to the side, sweat glistening on her skin for a different reason altogether. “So, how was Gotham?” she asked softly, trailing a finger in a figure-8 pattern on Oliver’s chest. “I can’t imagine Batman was pleased to see you.”

“He’s promised to _consider_ it,” Oliver said, reaching out and brushing Laurel’s hair back from her sweaty forehead and back behind her ear. “That’s about all I can hope for, I suppose. I’m going to give it a couple of weeks before I head to Metropolis and sound out Superman.”

“Superman,” Laurel said softly. “You know, you still haven’t told me what his deal is, and I _know_ that you know, even if it’s just because of what Novu showed you.”

“It’s very complicated,” Oliver said.

Laurel was silent. “I haven’t asked this,” she said softly. “Partly because I was afraid of the answer. In the future that Novu showed you… What were we like?”

“What do you mean?” Oliver asked guardedly.

“Were we together? Were we happy?” Laurel asked.

Oliver sighed. “Do you remember when you asked me if pushing you away would actually protect you?” Laurel nodded slowly. “What you didn’t know was I had what Novu showed me to draw on. In that future, I pushed you away. I refused to train you to become the person you were meant to be. I fought tooth and nail against you becoming a vigilante like me. And I tricked everyone, including you and even myself, into thinking that I was in love with someone else, all in the name of protecting you. In the end, it didn’t protect you. In the end, one of my enemies still killed you, to punish your father and hurt me, and you died believing that while I was the love of your life, you were not the love of mine.” Oliver adjusted the way he was laying so he was facing Laurel. He reached out and brushed his rough fingers over her soft cheek. “You couldn’t have been more wrong, and I feel the ache of the regret I felt at you believing that even now. Never doubt my love for you. Dinah Laurel Lance, you are the love of my life, and you always will be.”

Laurel clutched his hand to her cheek. “And you will always be the love of mine, Oliver Jonas Queen,” she whispered, kissing his palm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* I’m pretty sure Cisco joining QC was one of the few plotlines I didn’t manage to tie up in “Rise”, so I wanted to make sure I got it done.
> 
> *2* Ah, poor Quentin. He wanted to avoid having much to do with this and how he’s the Green Arrow’s point of contact in the S.C.P.D. I guess someone thought he had the Commissioner Gordon vibe.
> 
> *3* There’s not a lot of P.I.’s from DC Comics that aren’t heroes. Hiram Skinner is a sidekick of sorts for Wildcat who, based on what I dug up, was not the brightest of bulbs. I decided to use him in a different light here. Laurel is throwing herself into training because of what happened with The Huntsman and that is the reason for her rapid progression.


	4. The Article

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Considering the content of this chapter, I decided to post it today once the previous chapter had some time to shine.

Clark Kent sighed as he looked over the interview that Lois had finally convinced him to give her. Of course, Lois knew most everything about Krypton and his powers already, so this was more to make sure that it didn’t reveal anything he wasn’t ready for.

**The Origins of Superman**

_By_

_Lois Lane_

_For the past month, Metropolis has played host to its own hero in the vein of Starling City’s Oliver Queen/Green Arrow. This larger than life figure, Superman, lives up to his name with the plethora of abilities and seeming invulnerability he possesses, not to mention his outright attractiveness to the average person on the street. Recently, I had the chance to speak with Superman about who he is, where he comes from, how he received his powers, and what exactly his intentions are towards the people of Metropolis and, indeed, the world. The revelations are astounding and will change the world as we know it._

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _You’ve been flying around the city for a month now but haven’t spoken to the press. Why do so now?_

**_Superman:_ ** _I wanted to establish that I was a friend to the people of Metropolis before I spoke to the press. I’ve also felt cautious about revealing the truth about my origins because I know that above all else mankind fears that which it doesn’t understand, and I represent something otherworldly with my powers. But if Oliver Queen has proven anything with his own crusade, it is that the truth will out, and I would prefer that people learn the truth from me than it being revealed in the worst possible fashion._

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _Very mysterious, Superman, and there are plenty of questions that spring to mind from that statement. Let’s start with something simple. Where are you from?_

**_Superman:_ ** _That is not as simple as you may think, Miss Lane. While I was raised on Earth, I am not from it._

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _You mean to tell me that you’re an alien? You look human. You sound human._

**_Superman:_ ** _Earth was chosen as my destination because the people here are identical in appearance to those from my homeworld, Krypton._

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _Chosen? Should we expect more of your kind?_

**_Superman:_ ** _No. Krypton is gone. My people drew on geo-thermal energy to power almost everything, and even with megacities located at specific intervals across the planet, eventually the strain grew to be too much for the planet’s core. My parents knew what was happening, but the leadership of our people chose to ignore their warnings. So, my father, Jor-El, built a spaceship just large enough to send me away, to ensure I lived._

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _Why didn’t your father or mother come with you?_

**_Superman:_ ** _You have to understand that Krypton had restricted space travel for decades. The most space travel done was to our sister world of Daxam, and then only in pods like the one which carried me. Any ship large enough to carry two people would’ve been noticed on the scanners and shot down. Krypton was, unfortunately, quite xenophobic and afraid of interacting with most other species in the universe._

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _I see. So, are we to understand that your powers are inborn for your species?_

**_Superman:_ ** _My people lived under a red sun. I learned when I discovered my heritage that, under a yellow sun. we are given extraordinary powers._

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _Yes, your powers. Exactly how many of them do you have?_

**_Superman:_ ** _I possess X-Ray Vision, Heat Vision, Super Strength, Super Breath, Super Hearing, and Invulnerability. My brain also processes information faster than a human’s, giving me a genius-level intellect._

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _Very interesting. How long have you been on Earth?_

**_Superman:_ ** _I arrived when I would have been three years old. I am now thirty-six._

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _33 years? And you’re only now showing yourself to the world? Why have you not come forward before now?_

**_Superman:_ ** _Fear. For decades I’ve had a recurring nightmare of being hauled away to a lab somewhere and dissected while faceless government agents or military personnel look on in satisfaction._

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _So, what changed? Why come forward after all of this time hiding who you truly are?_

**_Superman:_ ** _Oliver Queen. I saw an ordinary man, with no special powers, who was willing to risk his life and his freedom for the sake of aiding others. If this man, so vulnerable and powerless, could do it, then why couldn’t I?_

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _I know you may not wish to answer this, but I have to ask: do you have any weaknesses?_

**_Superman:_ ** _Two that I know of. I can’t see or hear through lead, and because I was born under a red sun, red solar energy would make me as weak as any human. I’m sharing this with you because I have to trust that I’ve proven to humanity that I am not here to harm the innocent._

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _I hope that your trust and faith in humanity doesn’t end up being misplaced, Superman. What are your intentions towards the people of Metropolis and the Earth?_

**_Superman:_ ** _I’m here to help, Miss Lane. And I know that there might well be others like me, refugees from other worlds who are hiding on this world. Some of them, like me, simply want to live and be acknowledged as sentients and I would like to see the day when that can happen. But I’m also aware that there could be intergalactic criminals who use backwater worlds such as Earth as hiding places. These people, I would wish to defend humanity from._

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _Do you think the government is aware of the possibility of alien life and those who may wish to do us harm?_

**_Superman:_ ** _It is always a possibility._

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _Will you be joining the team of heroes that Oliver Queen is putting together at the request of the president?_

**_Superman:_ ** _I have not yet been approached by Mr. Queen but if I am, I will seriously consider such an offer. My only hesitation is the possibility that I would be obligated to act as a test dummy for weapons against alien life by the government._

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _Is there anything else which you wish to tell the people of the world?_

**_Superman:_ ** _I may have been born on another world, but Earth is my home. I was found by good, honest human beings who took an alien orphan into their home and showed him the love and care any parent would show a child. I’ve been raised among you. I feel and think as you do. I love as you do. I may be Kryptonian by birth, but in my heart, I’m human._

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _Thank you for sitting down with me and discussing these things. I imagine it was difficult to step forward and offer so much of yourself to a complete stranger._

**_Superman:_ ** _Thank you for being a willing ear, Miss Lane._

_There you have it. Superman is a visitor from another world, but one who has lived among us for over three decades. He has shown a degree of trust in humanity that is astonishing, especially for one who must have lived his entire life with paranoia about being found out. The ball is now in our court. Where will humanity fall on the subject of Superman? ***1***_

Clark leaned back in his armchair. They had actually had this conversation and recorded it for proof since they couldn’t say it happened in pillow-talk over the past decade, and they both had had to put themselves in the mindset of being strangers. It had been difficult, he felt, but in the end, he thought the article got its message across. “I don’t see how we could improve it any further,” Clark finally told Lois, turning the laptop back towards her. “You should send it to Perry if you want to make the morning edition.”

“I know this was difficult for you, Clark,” Lois said, reaching out and squeezing her hand. “But your trust won’t have been misplaced. I just know it.”

“I hope you’re right,” Clark whispered.

**_*DC*_ **

Lex Luthor laid down the copy of the _Daily Planet_ that he had received this morning, getting up and moving out onto the balcony of his penthouse apartment, looking up at the sky as he pondered over the revelations of the article. His mind swirled with the plethora of possibilities that now hovered just out of reach. The world had been playing host to an alien refugee for thirty-three years, and there was a strong possibility that Superman was not the only being from another world who lived on Earth. Lex had been wanting information on Superman, and the being in question had just delivered up all of the information that he could possibly hope for in that interview. His origins, his powers, his weaknesses… Lex would have to begin implementing security measures at his most sensitive project sites: lead shielding and red solar emitters, once he designed them.

But now the question became what he should do. It was highly likely that, if Superman joined Oliver’s team of heroes, he would be accepted by the world in the same way Oliver was. In many ways, he had already been accepted, even if he frightened a few with the scope of his powers. It seemed to Lex that the best option moving forward would be to ingratiate himself with Superman, become his ally, his confidant, perhaps even his friend. Superman had implied he learned about the fate of his world much later in his life, which meant he had to have access to _knowledge_ from his homeworld. Knowledge meant power. While it would be unwise to tap into the science that had doomed Krypton, Lex was certain there was a great deal of scientific advancement from Superman’s culture that he could subvert if he played his cards right. So much knowledge, so much scientific advancement, was right at Superman’s fingertips, and he had squandered it when he could have become the foremost scientist of the world, surpassing even Lex himself! Lex felt a great swell of pity for Superman and his short-sightedness, but also a sense of satisfaction because it would be _him_ who brought those technologies to the people of Earth once he had earned Superman’s trust and partnered with him on bringing Earth to the pinnacle of civilization, so that it was no longer considered to be, as Superman had said in the article, a backwater.

Lex retreated back inside, mind already whirring on how he could approach the Man of Steel and begin forging the friendship he sought.

**_*DC*_ **

General Samuel Lane barely acknowledged the byline that informed readers that it was his eldest (and more troublesome) daughter who had written it, intent on assimilating every bit of knowledge that he could about the mysterious Superman, who after this article was not so mysterious. As he read, General Lane grew more and more concerned, and it was only Superman’s willingness to share his weaknesses, weaknesses they could develop into weapons should Superman ever turn on them, that had the general feeling even remotely relaxed. Superman’s varied abilities represented a very real threat if he were to ever turn against the people of Earth, and his assertion that there could be other aliens living on Earth, potentially hostile ones at that… Samuel Lane was a career man, but never did he think the day would come when he would see the world faced with a threat beyond its imagining.

The stars that they saw in the night sky contained life, life that was potentially hostile to their ‘backwater’ little world. It was General Lane’s duty to protect his country from all hostiles, and now those hostiles could come from the clouds above as much as from across the oceans or even the dissidents within the country itself. For the first time in his life, Samuel Lane considered retirement, because he knew that the government would want a _civilian_ response for this, not a military one, and he wanted to be at the forefront of that response. New threats to his country had just been revealed, and if it meant retiring and taking up the duties of a civilian director of intelligence, then so be it. He would do his duty, no matter if he wore the uniform or not.

**_*DC*_ **

Bruce Wayne studied the article from the _Daily Planet_ that detailed the origins, powers, and weaknesses of Metropolis’ Superman. His mind began turning the information over, already planning how he could prepare in case Superman ever turned against people or went beyond the extremes that even Oliver Queen engaged in. It was one thing for a human like Queen to kill on occasion, quite another for someone who was so powerful to kill when he didn’t need to. Superman had proven time and again he could knock people out with a simple pat on the head and he was invulnerable to bullets. The only reason he would kill would be if he was facing an opponent with powers that rivaled his own (if even then), or because he had snapped and gone mad with the power that he possessed. It was the latter which concerned Bruce.

“It’s crazy what he can do, right?” Eighteen-year-old Jason Todd asked Bruce, reading over his shoulder.

“It’s certainly astonishing,” Bruce agreed grimly. “How are the ribs?” Jason had taken a bad hit from Riddler’s cane last night.

“They’ll heal,” Jason replied with a nonchalant shrug. His general nonchalant attitude concerned Bruce, as did his continuing temper issues. If they didn’t get those under control soon, Jason could end up putting himself and innocent people in danger, something that Bruce couldn’t allow. “So, you planning on how to kill him now?”

“I don’t kill,” Bruce snapped. “I will develop counter-measures to _capture_ him until he can be turned over to the government, should he ever turn against the people of the world.” Jason scoffed at Bruce’s attitude about not killing; he didn’t see what the guy had an issue with. The archer in Starling City didn’t seem to have the problem, so why did Gotham’s so-called ‘Dark’ Knight? “You need to work on your landings. Go practice.” Jason nodded reluctantly and headed off to do just that while Bruce returned to perusing the article, soaking up every scrap of knowledge he could and noting any irregularities. He had already noted one very surprising omission. Lois Lane rarely had the byline all to herself, usually sharing it with Clark Kent. Bruce cast his mind back to the charity gala Queen had thrown where he had met the two reporters who had been so effusive in their praise of Green Arrow, frowning before bringing up the picture of Superman and studying it intently before smiling grimly. _Hello, Mr. Kent,_ he mused to himself.

**_*DC*_ **

“Well, now, this is certainly unexpected news,” Damien Darhk said over breakfast with his wife, Ruve. Their six-year-old daughter, Nora, was in the other room drawing, having finished her breakfast and was waiting for the car to take her to school. “You know, my dear, it’s always nice when life can still surprise you, and we’ve certainly been getting surprises, pleasant or otherwise, since Oliver Queen became the world’s first public hero in decades.” Damien grinned. “Ah, I remember tangling with the Justice Society way back when. They were so pious, so sure of themselves. It made wiping the floor with them so much more entertaining.”

“Already planning on wiping the floor with Queen and his new team of heroes?” Ruve asked her husband knowingly.

“Only when they get in my way,” Damien said with a shrug. “But this new player? We should keep an eye on him. The way he presents himself, he would probably unknowingly interfere with some of our operations.”

“Of course,” Ruve said. “I’ll make sure that our intelligence department assigns someone to keep an eye on this Superman and Metropolis, just as we have people in place in Starling City to keep an eye on Queen.”

“I do love how we are so often on the same wavelength, my dear,” Darhk beamed at his wife. “Now, I have a busy day in the office. There are people who need to be reminded that I am not a man to be trifled with. Have a wonderful day.”

“I will,” Ruve replied, kissing her husband before he left for another day of torture, mayhem, and murder.

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver and Thea Queen were having breakfast, the _Daily Prophet_ between them.

“So,” Thea finally said. “An alien. A real, live alien.” She reached up and rubbed her temple as she felt a migraine coming on. “How is this our life now, Ollie? When did the world suddenly turn on its axis?”

_When I was given a second chance at life by a cosmic being with some twisted form of compassionate respect,_ Oliver thought to himself. Aloud, he said, “I don’t know, Speedy. But we’ll have to adapt to the world we live in now, as strange as it’s becoming.”

**_*DC*_ **

Dinah Laurel Lance and her sister sat in stunned silence, looking at the tablet that had the article from the _Daily Planet_ brought up on the table between them. “Huh,” Sara finally said. “He sure doesn’t _look_ like an alien.”

Laurel, on the other hand, was focused on another matter. “Oh, that man,” she muttered, frustrated. “Ollie knew about this; he had to have, but he kept quiet. He may not keep secrets about our relationship, but he still keeps secrets.”

“He keeps the secrets that aren’t his to tell,” Sara said. “Would you want him telling Dad about those nightmares of yours?”

“No, I suppose not,” Laurel sighed. “I just wish I didn’t get blindsided by things that he knows and doesn’t share because he feels it isn’t his place.”

**_*DC*_ **

Henry Allen eyed his son with amusement as Barry practically bounced in his seat. “I knew it!” Barry crowed. “Ha, take that, Joe! The impossible isn’t so impossible!”

“Calm down, son,” Henry said. “I know this is exciting news for you, but you still have to get to work today.”

“Yeah, yeah, I want to get Cisco’s opinion on this,” Barry said.

“Cisco?” Henry asked.

“Cisco Ramon, he’s a new hire from Central City that Oliver recruited when he was there, back when he recruited me,” Barry replied. “He just barely signed on at Q.C., though.” Here, Barry grinned. “Probably because he’s an outright Green Arrow fanboy. Superman, too.”

**_*DC*_ **

Other reactions to the news that Superman was an alien from another world were less-pronounced.

“Curious,” Cayden James mused to himself as he read his online subscription to the _Daily Planet_. The revelation that they were not alone in the universe was a surprise, but in the end, it didn’t impact Cayden and his work directly. Superman had proven he was much like Oliver Queen, intervening in certain kinds of crime. The kind of work Cayden did wasn’t even on their radar, and so long as he kept it that way, he had no need to worry about the ‘Man of Steel’. With that certainty in mind, Cayden turned his attention back to his latest operation.

“An actual alien,” Cisco Ramon murmured dreamily as he read the article on his tablet while eating breakfast. “But the odds of another world producing people who look exactly like us… man, that is such a headache to think about. But he’s gotta be rich to be able to afford the amount of food he’d need to burn through all the calories that it would take to fuel his heroics. Unless the yellow sun also gives him nourishment and keeps him charged…”

The man known only as Dante sat reading the _Daily Planet_ via an online subscription, digesting this new development. It was a troubling one. Ever since Green Arrow’s public debut and his eventual exposure as Oliver Queen, the world had been changing. Rumblings that hadn’t been heard in years were beginning to be heard. Unfortunately, with the debut of Superman, there was no chance of getting this under control. The Ninth Circle would have to shift and adapt to the changing world order, but that was something that they excelled at, as they had for centuries without being found out. Superman bore watching, as Oliver Queen and Batman did, but with any luck, they wouldn’t inspire further interfering busybodies to rise up. In the meantime, it would be wise to begin implementing lead shielding at sensitive facilities and have their scientists develop weapons that made use of red solar energy.

Joe West had been willing to accept the possibility that Superman was the result of government experimentation, but an alien? He didn’t quite believe that, though he knew Barry would probably be over the moon about the seemingly impossible being possible.

Iris West was beginning to consider the idea of a career in journalism. Barry had suggested it to her back at Thanksgiving, but she hadn’t been sure yet if it was a career path that she would want to consider. But seeing Susan Williams’ reports on Channel 52 and reading Lois Lane’s breaking stories in the _Daily Planet_ had begun to make her think that maybe, just maybe, there was something exciting about that career path.

Quentin Lance only heard about the revelations about Superman later in the day, from his partner, and it made him wonder more and more what use the world had for men like him when it had self-proclaimed heroes like Oliver Queen and Superman intervening and saving lives in ways that the police never could. **_*2*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver had just settled behind his desk at Queen Consolidated when his phone rang. He picked it up. “Oliver Queen,” he said.

“Please hold for the President, Mr. Queen,” said an official-sounding voice. Oliver straightened; he could guess what this was going to be about.

“Mr. Queen,” President Trumbull said as he came on the line.

“Mr. President,” Oliver replied evenly. “I assume this is about this morning’s edition of the _Daily Planet_?”

“It is,” Trumbull confirmed. “I don’t think I have to tell you that this is already sending shockwaves across the country. People have been divided on the subject of Superman, and this is going to further divide those battle lines. I have to ask if you’ve been considering approaching Superman and evaluating him for the Justice League?”

“I have been,” Oliver replied. “I was going to visit Metropolis in a couple of weeks. That was _before_ this article came out. I assume you want me to move up my timetable?”

“Please,” Trumbull said.

“I see a few potential issues that Superman might have,” Oliver said. “I won’t have anyone on my team, local or national, being subjected to brutal tests and experiments for the satisfaction of bean counters and desk jockeys, Mr. President. If I approach him, if I convince him to join the League, I have to have your word that Superman will not be subjected to tests by any government agency or military branch.”

“You have my word, Mr. Queen,” Trumbull said.

“Then I’ll fly out to Metropolis before the day is out,” Oliver said. “I can’t say I’ll have an answer soon. That depends solely on Superman.”

“I trust you’ll do what’s needed, Mr. Queen,” Trumbull said and hung up. Oliver did the same before beginning to make arrangements for his flight to Metropolis. The good thing about being the world’s only public hero was that he didn’t need to worry about making up excuses for why Oliver Queen needed to go a particular city. Everyone would know why Green Arrow was heading for Metropolis. Of course, seeing as his actions and those of Superman in this instance would be under the microscope, Oliver would have to approach Lois Lane at the _Daily Planet_ and ask her if she could pass along a message to the Man of Steel.

Based on his experience with Lois thus far, Oliver gave 50/50 odds that she would make her help contingent on an exclusive interview, something he had been avoiding committing to with anyone, from Susan Williams right down to tabloid reporters. Oliver had avoided making such a commitment because investigative journalists had to ask the hard questions, and there was only so much he could do before revealing his knowledge came from a cosmic being and, most likely, sounding crazy as a result. **_*3*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver had just finished packing for his trip to Metropolis (at least on the civilian side of things) when Thea returned home from school. “Thea,” he called, and she stopped where she stood, turning to look at him reluctantly. “I’m glad I caught you. I’m afraid I have to leave town again for a little while. The president has asked me to move up my approach of Superman about joining the Justice League.”

“The Justice League?” Thea said dubiously. “That’s what you’re calling it?”

Oliver was confused for a moment before he realized he had never actually told _anyone_ but President Trumbull what he was calling the team of heroes that would respond to major crises. “Yes,” he said in answer to his sister’s question. “I mean for it to be a counter for the likes of the League of Assassins and the League of Shadows, with the goal to see justice done in the light of day instead of the shadows.”

Thea was silent as she considered her brother’s words. “I guess it fits,” she said after a moment. “How long are you going to be gone?”

“I don’t know,” Oliver admitted. “It depends on how much time I have to take to evaluate Superman and how long he takes to consider the offer once it’s made. Plus, I’ll probably be dodging Lois.”

“Lois? Lane?” Thea asked.

“That woman is tenacious,” Oliver said. “She would not be out of place living in Starling.”

“You could always take Laurel with you to keep you safe,” Thea said with a teasing grin, falling back on old familiar patterns of teasing her brother.

“I thought about it, but she has her own responsibilities,” Oliver said. “Besides, if I take her with me, then Sara would have to be the one checking in on you and considering how the two of you are getting along…”

“Yeah, that’d probably be bad,” Thea said with a grimace. “I just… I don’t get it. I don’t get how Sara and you could change _so much_ in five years.”

Oliver considered his sister, then took her by the arm, and led her to the couch. “Thea,” he said as they sat down on the couch, “the thing about going through hell, or a refiner’s fire as some call it, is that it _can’t_ change you. _Nothing_ can truly change who you are at the fundamental level, no matter how dark or cruel the world around you becomes or what you have to do to survive. Nothing can change who you are at your core. What I’ve been through the past five years, what Sara’s been through in her own trials, didn’t change us. It chipped away all the excess, trimmed the fat so to speak, and left only the people we really are on the inside. Sara has a hard time showing that because the League’s agents are required to kill, and every time you kill, it takes a little piece of your soul with it. Sara is struggling to reconnect with her humanity and heal her soul from the pain and horror of the past few years. But at her heart, she is _still_ the same woman who babysat you, who commiserated with you over Laurel and I being ‘lovey-dovey’, who braided your hair into pigtails and tickled you mercilessly.” Thea smiled sadly at the memories that came flooding back. “All you need to do is _look_ for that woman and you’ll see her struggling to break free from the darkness. Human connection helps us with that, Speedy.”

Thea was silent, thinking over what her brother had said. She thought back to when he came back. He had seemed stand-offish at first, but he had slowly connected with people, especially Laurel, and eventually he had seemed like his old self, albeit focused on speaking his mind about topics near and dear to his heart even though it threatened his exposure to her biological father and the others who profited from the crime and corruption of Starling City. “It’s just _hard_ , trying to understand all of this,” she finally said.

“I get it, Speedy,” Oliver said. “I knew a man once, during my years away, who had completely cut himself off from human connections, believing that they were a weakness and that everyone in this life was in it for themselves. I tried to show this man that that wasn’t the case.”

“What happened?” Thea asked quietly.

“A man named Anthony Ivo tried to force me to choose between Sara and a woman called Shado,” Oliver said. “In a split-second decision, I flung myself between Sara and a bullet to the head, and Ivo killed Shado, deciding I had chosen to spare Sara. This led to my friend swearing to make the person who killed Shado suffer. Sara lied and said Ivo had just killed her without explanation and convinced me to go along with the lie. Unfortunately, my friend learned the truth from Ivo, who twisted it to sound like I had chosen Sara when, in truth, I was trying to force him to kill _me_ and leave both Shado and Sara alive.”

“What happened to your friend?”

“I put an arrow in his eye after I thought he killed Sara,” Oliver said honestly. “But he was exposed to a super-soldier serum from the 1940s and ended up being one of the lucky survivors. The serum had roughly a ninety percent mortality rate,” Oliver added, seeing Thea’s curious expression. Thea understood what that meant from her classes that explored the impact of epidemics. “I have no idea if he truly died from that, Thea. So, if you ever meet a one-eyed Australian man who calls himself Slade Wilson, _run_ , because he swore to make me suffer, to take away everyone and everything that I love.”

Thea suddenly leaned forward and grabbed Oliver in a hug. Oliver accepted the hug, burying his face in his sister’s mane of brown hair for a moment. “What’s this for?” he asked quietly.

“Because I’m tired of fighting,” Thea said thickly. “I know things are never gonna be normal for us. I know you’re always gonna be the Green Arrow. But I love you, Ollie, and I’ll try. I’ll try to understand what you and Sara have gone through and help you reconnect with your humanity.” Thea pulled away and wiped at her eyes. “Think I could convince Sara to go to a movie while you’re gone?”

“I think that would be a great idea, Speedy,” Oliver said. He leaned forward and kissed her forehead, his heart lightening. It looked like his sister was finally coming out of the darkness. **_*4*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* I debated on whether or not Clark would reveal his known weaknesses, but decided that, in the end, it’s a very Superman thing to do, putting his trust in humanity. Kryptonite has yet to be discovered.
> 
> *2* Writing all of the reactions to the article was a fun exercise, as getting into the heads of various characters to gauge their reactions about the crazy things happening in the world since the arrival of Green Arrow on the scene always is.
> 
> *3* I bounced a couple of ideas off the writers in the Lauriver Discord as to whether the President should try to insist Oliver force Superman to join the JL. In the end, him suggesting Oliver move up his timetable was the more viable option, along with him saying this should be done to nip the bud of someone suggesting military solutions.
> 
> *4* Thea’s been through the ringer for the past three months: getting her brother back, losing her parents, finding out she had more family, almost losing Oliver due to Tommy’s actions, then losing her bio-dad to madness and death and her oldest brother to the League of Assassins while being spared the same fate because Oliver could use their blood connection to save her from that, and finally having to spend the last month training to join her brother in his vigilantism/heroism or be taken by the League. But she’s finally beginning to settle and grow as an individual. Which is good, cuz I hate writing bratty Thea.


	5. Metropolis

Oliver Queen yawned as he moved to the bathroom of the hotel room he had rented when he got into Metropolis the night before. It was early morning, and he had only had about four hours of sleep, but he knew he needed to handle this thing with Superman as soon as he could, so he would be heading to the _Daily Planet_ as soon as he was sure it was open for business. Oliver took a moment to examine himself in the mirror. Due to it being the dead of winter, he had allowed his beard to grow out a little more, and it was now roughly the same thickness as it had been during his time in Slabside while his hair was now approaching pre- _Gambit_ lengths and was often combed to the side. Oliver mused over what he would do when Spring came again, and it was time to change with the seasons. Perhaps he should consider a new look with his facial hair? Goatee? Mustache? Maybe a Van Dyke for the best of both worlds?

Oliver chuckled to himself as he imagined himself with a Van Dyke and his left-parted hair, tossing an apple in the air flippantly. He might as well wear that damned feathered cap that Henry had suggested, and which Laurel and Sara teased him about getting. That would be the day.

Oliver quickly showered and groomed himself before dressing in the emerald green Brioni suit that he had brought along. It was one of many such suits he owned, and while he disliked flaunting his wealth after spending years not being wealthy in the last timeline, he knew that image was everything, especially now that he was constantly in the public sphere as both Oliver Queen and Green Arrow. So, even when it was something as simple as approaching the _Daily Planet_ ’s top reporter to arrange a meeting with Superman, he would need to look his best. Oliver sighed, wishing he could phone Laurel and see how she was doing, but it was six a.m. in Metropolis, which meant it was four a.m. in Starling City and if he woke her up from her much-needed sleep, she would eviscerate him with her _tongue_. He had made that mistake when he was younger; he knew better now.

Oliver spent the next couple of hours reading through all the articles written about Superman since his debut. Oliver had kept an eye on the basics but hadn’t really done an in-depth look into Superman’s activities until now. He shook his head at some of the things Superman involved himself in. And Oliver had thought that _he_ got involved with the little guy; Superman did things as simple as getting cats out of trees. Oliver had to admit he thought it was overkill, but to each their own. The thing about his memories of Superman from Earth-38 was that they were focused solely around the world-ending threats of Elseworlds and the Crisis. He had no idea who the man was as a hero, as a person, and those were things he needed to determine to make sure that Superman was someone he wanted to be considered part of the Justice League.

Oliver finished going over everything the _Daily Planet_ (specifically Lois Lane) had written about Superman by the time eight-thirty rolled around. He had arranged for a car service to pick him up, so he headed down to the front of the hotel, ignoring the whispers of other hotel guests as they recognized who was walking through the lobby. Oliver exited the hotel to find the car already waiting, driver standing beside the back door. “Mr. Queen, I’m ready to take you wherever you need to go,” the driver said, opening the door for him. Oliver climbed in and the driver shut the door. Moments later, he was taking his place behind the wheel. “Where to, sir?”

“The _Daily Planet_ ,” Oliver said, and looked out the window at the streets of Metropolis as the car made its way through the city towards the premier newspaper.

“Is this about Superman?” the driver asked.

“It is,” Oliver replied.

“Nothing bad, I hope,” the driver said. “I can’t say I’m not weirded out about him being an alien, but he’s doing a lot of good for the people here.”

“No, nothing bad,” Oliver said with a smile. “I’ve been doing my research and Superman seems to be a good influence on Metropolis. I just have some questions for him. I was going to be coming out in a couple of weeks, anyways. The article just moved up my timetable.”

“You gonna ask him to join that government team?” the driver asked.

“Yes,” Oliver replied. “But I don’t foresee it causing him to forget about the people of Metropolis. In fact, one thing I want from each person who joins is a commitment to _not_ let the team become the only thing in their lives and forget the people that they’re trying to help. I have no intentions of letting the team take my focus away from Starling.”

“Sounds good,” the driver said, relieved. “Superman stopped a train from derailing the other day. My son was on that train.”

“Is he alright?” Oliver asked.

“He is,” the driver said. “A little shaken up, but I’m so thankful for what Superman did. My son is my whole world.” The driver looked at Oliver through the rear-view mirror. “And you? How is your son?”

“In hiding with his mother,” Oliver said. “I can never be the father that he needs. Not with what I do, what I’ve become. But I can protect this world for him, make it safe for him to spread his wings as an adolescent and adult.”

The driver was silent for a moment. “I never really thought of what you must be giving up, being a public hero,” the driver finally said. “I’m so sorry.” **_*1*_**

“I knew what I was getting into,” Oliver said with a sad smile. “But thank you for your sympathy.”

The rest of the drive was done in companionable silence, and soon, the town car pulled up smoothly to the curb outside of the _Daily Planet_. “I’m not sure how long I’ll be,” Oliver said.

“I can wait however long it takes, Mr. Queen,” said the driver before getting out and circling around to the passenger-side back door. He opened it, allowing Oliver to step out onto the curb. Oliver knew it was part of the image he had to portray to the world, but he still felt uncomfortable after years of not being involved in high society. It was one thing to put on a smile at a benefit like he did with the charity gala; he had practice still from being mayor. But being treated like he was ‘superior’ in some way made him feel dirty. He was no better than his driver.

Oliver gave the driver a nod and headed into the building. He made his way to the information desk right inside. “Excuse me,” he said to the receptionist. “I was hoping you could direct me to where I can find Lois Lane.”

“Miss Lane is very busy. Do you have an appointment?” the receptionist asked without looking up.

“I think she’ll see me,” Oliver said dryly. “Just call up and tell her that Oliver Queen would like to speak to her.”

The receptionist froze and looked up, eyes wide as she took in Oliver in his emerald green suit. “Mr. Queen?” she squeaked.

Oliver smiled patiently and said, “If you could see if Miss Lane has a moment…”

“Of-Of course,” the receptionist replied. She picked up her phone and hit an extension. “Miss Lane? Mr. Queen is here to see you.” The receptionist winced at whatever was said but then replied, “I’ll send him right up.” She hung up the phone. 15th floor, Mr. Queen.”

“Thank you,” Oliver said and headed for the elevator after being given a visitor’s pass by the receptionist. He nodded at the guard, who nodded back, looking surprised at being acknowledged. Oliver stepped onto the elevator and hit the button for the 15th floor. Oliver waited calmly, thinking over the counter-offer he would make to Lois if she pressed for an interview. He had been thinking about it, and he had realized that he should really show Susan Williams and Channel 52 some loyalty after how they had stuck by him even when he was on the run from the cops and criminals alike. But Lois had once said something that Oliver knew he could use to convince her to arrange a meeting with Clark, since he had to go through ‘official’ channels.

The doors to the elevator opened and Oliver stepped out into the hallway. He looked down the hall and saw the doors leading to the bullpen. He made his way down the hall, nodding at those who stopped and stared at him in shock or awe with an easy, practiced smile. Oliver entered the bullpen to find Lois, Clark, the photographer that had taken the pictures of he and Laurel from the press conference, and an older man who had to be the infamous Perry White waiting for him. “Mr. Queen, welcome to the _Daily Planet,_ ” White greeted. “I can’t wait to hear what brings you here asking to see my top reporter.” There was a subtle eagerness to White’s tone that Oliver took as meaning the man was hoping for an exclusive with “the man who single-handedly brought down the greatest conspiracy of the modern age” as the _Daily Planet_ had hailed Oliver to be.

“Mr. White, I presume?” Oliver said. White nodded. “It’s a pleasure to meet you in person. Your reputation precedes you.” Oliver held out a hand, and White shook it. The photographer snapped a capture of that. Oliver internally sighed. Convincing them that the exclusive couldn’t be theirs was gonna be harder than he thought. “I have to say I wasn’t quite expecting the welcoming committee.”

“Well, when the world’s first public hero since the days of the Justice Society shows up, people sit up and take notice,” White said. The president had released the declassified history of the Justice Society of America to promote his decision to have Oliver form a new team of heroes. “What can the _Daily Planet_ do for you, Mr. Queen?”

“I was hoping that Miss Lane could arrange a meeting with Superman,” Oliver said, giving a nod in Lois and Clark’s direction. “I was already going to come out in a couple of weeks, but the recent article detailing Superman’s origins had the president asking me to move up my timetable.”

“So, you’re here to meet Superman, presumably about joining the new team of heroes, on the orders of the president?” White clarified, looking like Christmas had come early.

“That’s correct,” Oliver replied. He met Lois’ eyes. “So, how about it, Miss Lane? Can you arrange it?”

“I could, but what does the _Daily Planet_ get out of this?” Lois asked shrewdly.

Oliver smiled. “Well, the _Planet_ will get the official exclusive on the formation of the team and unveiling of it’s name,” Oliver replied. “As for you, personally, Miss Lane, I intend to fulfill a dream you shared some months back.”

“Dream?” Lois asked quizzically.

“You expressed an interest in my life story,” Oliver replied. “I imagine that could turn into a very _lucrative_ book deal for you.” Lois’ eyes widened while White’s gleamed in anticipation. “So?” **_*2*_**

“I’ll arrange the meeting,” Lois promised.

“Good,” Oliver said. “Tell Superman I can meet him at my hotel room at any time.” Lois nodded. “Thank you, Miss Lane. Now, I suppose we should get the bulk of the interview, aside from whatever decision Superman comes to, out of the way.” He looked between White, Lois, and Clark. “So, which of you will be handling it?”

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver sighed as he stood on the balcony of his hotel suite, looking out across Metropolis. Perry White was a bulldog of a reporter and he had siphoned every bit of information that he could from Oliver, which would no doubt lead to quite the article when it was finally published, which wouldn’t be until _after_ Superman made his decision since _Superman Joins Justice League_ would make for one hell of a headline. And Oliver was certain that, with his assurances from the president, Superman would join. Oliver’s eyes fell on the giant globe that represented the top of the _Daily Planet_ as well as the skyscraper beside it that was LuthorCorp Plaza. He had received an invitation to a gala at LuthorCorp Plaza for later this evening; Lex must have seen his arrival at the _Daily Planet_ or heard about it from contacts at the paper. He would wait a little while longer for Superman to show up before heading for the gala. The Brioni suit he was wearing would be good enough for such a gathering.

Oliver’s sharp eyes picked up the figure in blue and red coming towards him and straightened as Superman descended, coming to a stop floating on the other side of the balcony. “Superman,” Oliver said with a nod. “Come on inside. I’ve swept for bugs and I have a device that will make sure no one can eavesdrop on our conversation.” Oliver moved into the room and, a moment later, Superman floated in behind him, touching down on the rich carpet. Oliver picked up a device that he had found in the purgatory of his Applied Sciences division and turned it on. “There, we’re covered,” Oliver said. “Now we can be honest with each other, Clark.”

“Then maybe you can tell me what gave me away,” Superman said. “Did I do something at the gala?”

“No,” Oliver said. “The truth is, Clark, everything that I have done, all of my accomplishments, is because I cheated.”

“Cheated?” Superman repeated.

“Seven years from now, the world faced destruction at the hands of a being known as the Anti-Monitor,” Oliver said, meeting Superman’s gaze calmly and unflinchingly. “I was among several heroes gathered from across multiple universes to challenge this being. On a world known as Earth-38, I gave my life so that the people could be evacuated before that universe was destroyed. The Monitor, a cosmic being who opposes the Anti-Monitor, gave me a second chance at life. But I’ve changed things too much, Clark. The future is no longer set. In the future I know, you never stepped into the light. Instead, I knew another Superman, from another Earth. That is how I knew who you were when I set eyes on you at the gala. I was surprised, because since you had never stepped into the light, I didn’t believe this Earth _had_ a Clark Kent.”

Superman was silent. “Is this threat still coming?” he finally asked quietly. He could hear Oliver’s heartbeat, see the earnestness in his gaze, and his explanation for how he had known made sense since Clark _knew_ he couldn’t have given anything away at the gala, despite his questions.

“Yes, Clark,” Oliver said. “It’s been delayed. But twelve years from now, the Crisis will come, and the Anti-Monitor will again threaten the multiverse. I intend to have an alliance of heroes to stand as champions for Earth against this evil. But before we get there, there are many more threats out there. In my time as a hero, I faced an immortal priest bent on world domination, an invasion by the Dominators, an attack by Nazis from another Earth, and more. The world needs heroes, and the heroes of the world need to be united. Please, Clark. Join me in standing as a champion for this world against all who would do it harm.” **_*3*_**

Superman folded his arms across the chest. “I have to ask this before I give my answer,” he said. “Will I be required to submit to testing by the military or government agencies?”

“No,” Oliver said. “I’ve already arranged that with the President. You’ll be safe either way, and I don’t want you to join the Justice League if you feel pressured. This has to be your choice, Clark, without any outside interference. If you need time to think on it, that’s alright. I have a gala that I have to attend tonight. Lex Luthor sent me an invitation and I need to keep myself ingratiated in the public sphere.”

“I won’t have to make those sorts of appearances, will I?” Superman asked.

“I’m the only known hero, Clark,” Oliver said, “and I won’t require those who join me to reveal themselves. I will continue to be the face of the Justice League. You don’t need to worry.” Superman nodded. “Will you want time to consider my offer?”

“Yes,” Superman said. “I have to go to the gala, as well, as part of the press corps.”

“Then I’ll see you there,” Oliver said, turning off the device. “Thank you for coming to speak to me, Superman, and whatever you decide, know that I respect your choice and will fight for your right to live as ordinary a life as you can.”

“Thank you, Mr. Queen,” Superman said, recognizing that their conversation was no longer hidden. He moved to the balcony and took off.

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver descended the steps towards the main atrium of the Metropolis Planetarium, where Lex Luthor was holding his gala. He could see that, much like his own charity gala, tonight’s guest list was a Who’s Who event, with the Rathaways, Simon Stagg, and Dr. McGee from Central City; Tommy Elliot from Gotham City; The Teagues and Swanns from right here in Metropolis; and of course Oliver himself from Starling. Oliver noted more than a few heads turning in his direction before whispering excitedly to their companions.

Lex himself was standing at the bottom of the steps, greeting his guests as they came in. “Oliver!” he greeted, stretching out a hand and shaking Oliver’s. “I’m glad you could make it on such short notice. I hear you’ve had quite the busy day.”

“Perry White is certainly a thorough reporter,” Oliver replied with an easy-going smile. “You’ll be able to read all about it in the _Daily Planet_ soon enough.”

“I look forward to it,” Lex said. “There’ll be a private gathering later on that I’d like you to attend.”

“Just let me know when,” Oliver replied.

“I’ll send a waiter with a message,” Lex replied. “Enjoy the evening.” Lex turned to greet the next guest as Oliver walked into the party, snagging a flute of champagne off of the offered tray and giving a nod of thanks to the waiter. Oliver soon found himself being approached by a lithe woman with light brown hair and blue eyes.

“Mr. Queen, welcome to Metropolis,” Patricia Swann, the C.E.O. of Swann Communications since the death of her father many years ago, said, holding out her hand in greeting. Oliver shook it, if only to be polite. “What brings you to the city?”

“Superman,” Oliver replied with a shrug. “You’ll be able to read all about it in the _Daily Planet_ day after tomorrow.”

“I look forward to it,” Swann said before moving on. Oliver wasn’t surprised she didn’t stick around. He doubted very many people would look him in the eye now that they knew who he was and what he did, especially those who were guilty of corporate corruption. No doubt they would be saying as little as possible of their business practices while he was around, out of fear that the Green Arrow would come calling. Oliver mused over whether he would ever expand such operations beyond Starling City; he could see it being necessary at some point (such as with that Galaxy Communications that Mia and William had told him about which was a cover for a terrorist organization called EdenCorps), but for now he would remain focused on his city and preparing the world’s heroes for the Crisis on Infinite Earths and whatever else lay ahead in the uncertain future he had created when he killed Eobard Thawne.

Oliver found himself wandering over to the Central City crowd, who quieted slightly as he approached. “Ladies, gentlemen,” Oliver said with a nod.

“Mr. Queen,” Simon Stagg greeted. “A surprise to see you here.”

“I was in town, and Lex sent an invitation,” Oliver replied with a shrug. “I’m sure it was a last-minute choice on his part seeing as I haven’t heard anything about it from my people at Queen Consolidated. Then again, I have been busy of late.”

“Yes, we’ve seen the reports,” Stagg said. “You’ve had to deal with quite the crime wave since killing Malcolm Merlyn.”

“It wasn’t unexpected,” Oliver said with a shrug. “And it helps that the S.C.P.D. is no longer shackled by the deal that Merlyn forged between them and the organized crime in Starling.”

Mrs. Rathaway sniffed slightly. “I find it appalling that a man of such impeccable breeding like yourself would lower himself to champion the unwashed masses,” she said.

Oliver gave the woman a polite smile. “Well, when you spend five years surviving day by day, you begin to understand the desperation of the poor,” he said. “I just take things a step farther and stand up for those victimized by those of… lesser morals.”

Mrs. Rathaway sniffed again and turned to speak to her husband. Oliver decided it was best to move on. He gave a nod and a smirk towards Mrs. Teague as he passed her by, remembering her implying at the C.N.R.I. gala that Green Arrow would die an ignominious death as the original Robin Hood had. She was certainly eating those words now, if the sour expression she shot at him in response was any indication.

Eventually, a waiter came to Oliver and informed him that Lex was gathering select guests for a private audience in the observatory. Oliver made his way towards the stairs leading to the observatory, giving Clark and Lois a nod on the way there and finding himself walking alongside a man he vaguely recognized. “Mr. Fox,” he said.

“Mr. Queen,” Lucius Fox replied. “Any idea what this is about?”

“None,” Oliver said truthfully. “I half-expected Mr. Wayne to have been invited, considering he’s old classmates with our host.”

“He was invited, but he sent me in his stead,” Lucius replied. “He said that if you were here to tell you that he’s still considering the offer that you made him when you were last in Gotham.” It was obvious Lucius was curious what this meant, but Oliver didn’t elaborate, unaware of whether Lucius knew Bruce’s secret or not. The two entered the observatory to find that Lex had quite the group gathered. In addition to the two of them, Lex had gathered Simon Stagg, Dr. Tina McGee, Hartley Rathaway, and Patricia Swann.

“Oliver, Lucius, thanks for coming so quickly,” Lex said, gesturing them inside as security closed the door behind them. “I apologize for the security, but for the time being I would like us to play this meeting close to the vest.”

“What is this about, Mr. Luthor?” Lucius asked.

“We’ve all seen the news about Superman,” Lex began. “We now have definitive proof that aliens exist and that even Superman thinks more could come to Earth or already be here. He has promised to defend our world from such threats, but the question is how one being, even one as powerful as he is, could stop an invasion? The people in this room represent the leaders of industry in our country. When the government needs new weaponry, new communications systems, new technologies, it is _us_ that they come to. They will be coming to us now for ways to counter the problems that could come from beyond our atmosphere.”

“What is it that you’re proposing, Lex?” Oliver asked, his mind going to the Dominators and the way the government had rolled over for them simply because they didn’t have the weaponry to challenge them. How could that invasion have been different if the world’s militaries were prepared?

“I am suggesting that we all work together to solve these problems, communicate with each other about what we are working on to keep our world safe from alien threats,” Lex said earnestly. “Not Superman, of course,” he added. “He’s proven he’s a friend to the people of Earth. But while he may think he’s the last of his kind, he doesn’t know for certain. He was a baby when he was sent to Earth, after all. If others of his kind survived the destruction of their homeworld and came to Earth, but with a mindset to conquer…” he trailed off leadingly.

“You make a case for a troubling reality, Lex,” Stagg said. “If other aliens are on Earth, they likely have powers the same as Superman. How can we counter such threats? Your proposal is intriguing, but I’d have to know more.”

“If there is a general consensus, I’ll be drafting a full proposal and sending it to each of you at your company headquarters,” Lex replied. “How does everyone else feel?”

“Not all aliens are gonna be like Superman,” Hartley Rathaway said. “I could see S.T.A.R. Labs helping in this endeavor.

“It may be for the best that we have an open line of communication with one another and work to develop technologies to aid against potential threats,” Tina McGee said.

“The government is always asking for an upgrade to continually harden their lines of communication and I don’t see that changing,” Patricia Swann said.

“I have to admit I’m intrigued, but uncomfortable with the idea of sharing company secrets with the competition,” Lucius Fox said.

Oliver was silent as everyone turned to look at him. Finally, he said, “Alien invasion is potentially one of the things that the team of heroes I’m trying to build is tasked with intervening in, but I would be lying if I said that having the government prepared wouldn’t help. But I would have to be cautious about where our research and development led. I wouldn’t want any of us to cross a line we can’t step back over in our zeal to defend our world from hypothetical enemies.”

“A valid point, Oliver, and I agree, we should be careful,” Lex said. “But sometimes science requires sacrifice to advance.” He looked around. “It appears that the general consensus is to have the proposal drawn up for your perusal?” Consenting nods circled the room. “Excellent. Now, don’t let me take any more of your time. Enjoy the rest of the party.” **_*4*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Later that night, Oliver was once more on the balcony of his hotel room when Superman arrived in front of him. “I assume you’ve come to your decision?” Oliver asked.

“I have,” Superman said. “But I was wondering what you intend to do about Lex’s suggestion?”

“I wondered if you were listening in on that,” Oliver mused. “What do _you_ think I should do?”

“A part of me instinctively wants to oppose anything that could threaten me, even peripherally,” Superman replied. “But I remember what you said about the Dominators. If that happens in this timeline, it would be better if the world could fight back. Who knows what might happen with them this time. Based on what you said, I don’t think there was much of an invasion.”

“No, not really,” Oliver said. “And we won’t necessarily have the chance to beat them the same way.” Oliver looked out across Metropolis. “I’m going to tentatively accept Lex’s suggestion,” he finally said. “But I’ll let you know if anything begins to happen to suggest something… sinister.”

“I appreciate it,” Superman replied. He smiled suddenly. “Meanwhile, Lois is over the moon that she landed your life story. She’s already trying to figure out when she can cut out a bloc of time in her schedule to come to Starling City to begin the process.”

“Why do I get the feeling that I’m going to regret this?” Oliver asked.

“Because you are,” Superman replied. “She’s as tenacious as Perry with a story that she really wants to write. Good luck.” With that, Superman turned and flew off across the city. Oliver watched him go, then turned and entered his hotel room. He had to catch some sleep because he had an early flight back to Starling City tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* I thought it would be touching for Oliver to have a moment with his driver, representing the common citizen, recognizing the kinds of sacrifices he’s made to be the Green Arrow and the world’s first public hero.
> 
> *2* I hashed out what Oliver would ‘trade’ in return for a meeting be arranged with Superman with the help of the denizens of the Lauriver Discord. For things that concern Starling and his mission there, he’ll stick with Susan and Channel 52.
> 
> *3* I decided that Oliver would come clean to Superman as part of his pitch for Superman to join the JL. Oliver needs a confidant, still, especially as the timeline is thrown completely out of control. Superman seemed like a good confidant. And yes, this is the first step towards Oliver telling Laurel the truth about what Novu really did for him.
> 
> *4* As always, Lex Luthor is scheming, but since Oliver never met Lex, he has no idea what kind of monster he can become, and neither does Clark. What will this mean moving forward?


	6. Emiko Queen

**Superman Joins Justice League**

That was the headline of the _Daily Planet_ the day after Oliver returned from Metropolis. Written by Perry White himself, the article revealed the name of the Justice League to the public for the first time since Oliver had told the president what he intended to call the new team of heroes. It included quotes from both Oliver and Superman, the latter of which had come about the day following Lex’s gala at the Planetarium. Oliver had been amused that people had been so awed by Superman arriving at the _Daily Planet_ to give some comments for the article that they hadn’t noticed the conspicuous absence of Clark Kent, one of their senior reporters.

As to Oliver’s day yesterday… he had barely managed to intervene in time to save the life of Danny de la Vega and capture Garfield Lynns the night before, and then only thanks to using the memory recall meditations that he had used to find the memories surrounding Tempest and Frank Chen’s involvement with his parents a couple of months back. But the takeaway was that he _had_ saved Danny and that Mrs. de la Vega hadn’t lost both of her children. Oliver knew that Laurel still felt guilty over Joanna’s death, being the person those mercenaries had come for, but he was glad that she was channeling her grief and guilt into training, though at some point he or Sara was going to have to sit down with Laurel and explain that even the best training in the world is going to struggle to adapt to the kind of situation that she faced that day.

Oliver and Thea were quietly having breakfast after reading the article, Thea in her school uniform. “So, your team is finally starting to happen,” Thea said. “How do you feel about that, Ollie?”

“I don’t know,” Oliver replied honestly. “This is so far beyond what I pictured, Speedy. All I ever planned to do, all I ever wanted to do, was to stop Malcolm and protect this city. But Novu… he showed me things, things that scare the hell out of me. And even though I averted that future by killing Thawne, I still worry that some of what I saw will happen still. And if it does… the world needs heroes to stand as champions for it.”

“What kinds of things did he show you?” Thea asked tentatively.

“It’s not something you need to worry about, Thea,” Oliver said quietly. “You are still a _long_ way from even having to worry about this city, much less the world.”

Thea was silent for a moment. “What about Laurel and Roy?” she asked. “Are you going to hold them back, as well? At least they _want_ to be doing this. We both know I wouldn’t be if I had a choice.”

“I know, Speedy,” Oliver said. “And I want to make sure _all_ of you are ready before I let you into the field.” Oliver sighed. “What Novu showed me also showed me what happened when someone I cared about went into the field before they were ready.” His expression grew sad as he recalled the fact that Laurel had died only four days before her thirty-first birthday after barely a year of being the Black Canary. **_*1*_**

“There you go again,” Thea said softly. Oliver looked at her in confusion. “Sometimes, especially when you’re talking to Laurel or just looking at her, you get this sad look on your face. What happens, Ollie? What happens to Laurel?”

“Something that won’t happen now,” Oliver said.

“But what _happens_?” Thea persisted.

Oliver sighed. “Thea, I haven’t even told Laurel everything,” he said, “and she deserves to know a hell of a lot more than you do. Maybe one day I’ll share my secrets, but until then, please, don’t push things. Alright?” He looked over at his sister, who nodded after a moment, clearly unhappy. “On another note, you need to be ready to issue ‘no comments’ today. Emiko and I will be filing the paperwork to officially bring her into the family.”

“So, you’re really gonna do it, then?” Thea said heavily.

“I made a promise,” Oliver replied simply.

“Even though it means dragging Dad’s name through the mud?” Thea asked with a scowl. “All for a woman that you barely know?”

“She’s family, Thea, and I don’t have much of that left,” Oliver replied patiently. “I will _never_ be able to have my son in my life because of what I do, so you and Emiko are all of the family that I have left in this world. I am going to want _both_ of you in my life.”

“Why would you want me when you have her?” Thea sulked, her tone jealous and somewhat despondent.

“Thea, you are my baby sister,” Oliver said, moving around the counter and pulling her into a one-armed hug. She leaned against him, breathing in the scent of his deodorant. “I held you in my arms when I was seven years old and swore that I would keep you safe. I haven’t really been able to fulfill that oath, and I know that things in our life are never going to not be crazy. But I love you, and our relationship is different than what I have with Emiko. She’s someone I can rely on in the company, a sister closer to my own age who I can treat as an equal. We’re not there yet, because I still see you as my baby sister.”

“I’m not a baby,” Thea said petulantly.

“No, but you’re not an adult either and that isn’t just marked by an age, Thea,” Oliver said. “I can safely say that even when I was 22, before the _Gambit_ , I couldn’t be called a man. I was a boy. It takes hardship to forge yourself into an adult and be considered one. I just hope the hardships you face are lighter than mine.”

Thea sighed and pushed away. “I’ll try not to say anything,” she said quietly. “But you know how pushy they can get.”

“Yes, I know,” Oliver said. “But part of being an adult is showing that you can handle the pressure. I know it’s gonna be hard, Thea. The press is going to be trying really hard for a soundbyte from you. But you held out against them when they were demanding one about me being Green Arrow. You can do the same for this, and eventually, the press will back off. You just have to hold strong.”

“I’ll try, Ollie,” Thea said quietly, wondering if she would actually be able to do it, especially if someone brought up the fact that, biologically, she _wasn’t_ a Queen and had no right to an inheritance, an inheritance Oliver still hadn’t given back to her while he had arranged for Emiko and her mother to receive the support that Robert had wanted them to have.

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver stood at the podium, looking out at the crowd of reporters. Emiko was on the podium with him, the two of them having just come from the courthouse where the paperwork granting Emiko the Queen name had been approved. Oliver had spoken with both Emiko and Kazumi (who would be staying as close to her apartment as possible for the time being) about the need to get out ahead of the press when it came to revealing Emiko’s parentage, and both had accepted that now that Emiko was officially a Queen, they were going to be in the spotlight regardless and it was better if it was on their terms. Ned Foster had been briefed only a few minutes ago and was staring at Emiko with a thoughtful expression on his face.

“Thank you for coming,” Oliver said, beginning the press conference. “I want to make something clear. This is not a press conference about my work as Green Arrow or the _Daily Planet_ ’s article. This is about something much more personal, and dear to my heart, and I would appreciate a degree of kindness.” Oliver examined the reporters, who were looking confused, but nodding slightly. Oliver sighed. That would have to do. “There is no easy way to say this. I learned many secrets from my father before he died. One of those secrets is the reason I’ve called you here today. Years ago, when my mother was pregnant with me, my father had an affair, an affair that resulted in a child of its own. That child is here with me today and has been officially brought into and recognized as a member of the Queen family. I’d like to introduce all of you to the head of Applied Sciences, Emiko Queen.”

Oliver gestured for his sister to come stand beside him, and she did so, her eyes wet with unshed tears. “Emiko and I have been working closely for a month now, and a more dedicated head of a division I couldn’t find. Together, we are turning Applied Sciences into what I believed it could be. It is my intent to ensure that should something happen to me in the course of my duties as the Green Arrow that Emiko will take over for me as C.E.O. of Queen Consolidated.” Emiko looked at him, startled, having not heard this before, but Oliver focused his attention on the press corps. “There will be no questions at this time, but Queen Consolidated will be releasing an official statement.” Oliver and Emiko headed off the stage and headed for the elevators, Ned following them while security kept the press at bay.

Only once they were firmly ensconced on the elevator and on their way back up to the executive offices did anyone speak. “Oliver… did you really mean that?” Emiko asked. “You want me to be able to take over for you if something happens?”

“It’s your right, Emiko,” Oliver said. “Aside from me, you’re the only member of the family who can take over the company. Even if the board wouldn’t throw a fit over the idea of Thea taking over, given her parentage, I wouldn’t put this burden on someone who wouldn’t want it. Dad told me that you wanted this, to be a part of the company, and I imagine that you’ve thought about what would happen if something happened to me once you were officially part of the family. I just wanted to make sure that Queen Consolidated is in good hands if something did happen to me.”

“Oliver… I don’t want anything to happen to you, and I don’t know if I want to take control of the company _that_ way,” Emiko said. “You’ve given me everything I could have hoped for. You don’t need to do this.”

“I want to do this,” Oliver said. “When our father died, Queen Consolidated was in chaos, even with Mom inheriting, because she was only a Queen by marriage and hadn’t trained for it. I made sure Queen Consolidated was in good hands while I was on the run, but I knew that in the end, the company has to be helmed by someone from our family. You have trained to be in business, Emiko. It might be that one day I have you take over anyways so that I can devote all of my time to Green Arrow and the Justice League. Please, accept that this is what I want for you.”

“You’ve given me so much,” Emiko said, tears trickling down her cheeks. “Why?”

“Because you’re family,” Oliver said, taking Emiko in his arms and pulling her close. She melted into his embrace, and Oliver closed his eyes as he felt her body shuddering with emotion. The battle continued, but he was certain he had just won a strategic victory in the battle for his sister’s soul. **_*2*_**

The moment was broken by a timid knock on Oliver’s office door. Mark Snow poked his head in. “Mr. Queen? There’s a Dr. Briggs here to see you. He’s quite insistent about it.”

Oliver perked up. “Good, I’ve been trying to find him,” Oliver said. “Emiko, you should stay since this will effect Applied Sciences.” Ned took the unspoken order and left the room as an African American man entered, his black hair cut short, almost military style. “Dr. Briggs,” Oliver said. “I’ve been looking for you.”

“Have you, now?” Briggs asked gruffly. “This got anything to do with you using my intellectual property to go gallivanting off against the likes of the Russian and Italian mobs?”

Oliver internally sighed. He should’ve known there was a possibility that Briggs took offense to his use of the RQ-1141. “Technically speaking, the patent for the RQ-1141 belongs to Queen Consolidated,” Oliver said slowly. “And yes, this has everything to do with your expertise. What you created, Dr. Briggs, is something that is vital for my efforts as both Green Arrow and as the leader of the Justice League, such as it is. I was hoping that I could convince you to return to Queen Consolidated and head up a special division in Applied Sciences that would develop gear and technologies for the Justice League, as well as for a covert intelligence branch that I have connections to. You would receive full benefits and a bonus for each unit of gear and technology sold. I can see the option of some of this technology even hitting the civilian market.”

“And in return for this, I have to promise my life’s work back to Queen Consolidated? The same company that refused to let me test the RQ-1141 and mothballed it because of some pencil-necks in the Pentagon?”

“I am not Walter Steele, Dr. Briggs,” Oliver said. “What you created? It saved my life more than once during the mob war between the Bratva and the Bertinellis, and it helped me the past month while I worked to contain the crime wave that followed the end of Tempest. Your work has real world applications, Dr. Briggs, and while it may not see widespread use in the military like you envisioned, it can and _will_ see use in wars that are just as important, wars for the souls of American cities that have become battlegrounds between the criminal and corrupt and those who take up the challenge of bringing justice back to their homes.”

Briggs was silent. Finally, he asked, “The RQ-1141. How did it perform? We were never sure what bugs might be involved since we never got to field test it.”

“It was a bit sluggish at first, but once I broke it in, it worked like a charm, and the armor even stopped a .50 caliber sniper round,” Oliver replied, and Briggs’ eyebrows popped up.

“We were never sure how high a caliber it could take,” Briggs said. “.50 caliber, you say? Amazing. Simply amazing. And the enhancements to strength and agility? Those worked out?”

“Once I got used to the suit, yes,” Oliver said.

Briggs rubbed his jaw before looking at Emiko. “And what are your thoughts on this, Miss Queen?” Emiko started at the address. “I saw the conference downstairs,” Briggs said in answer to the unasked question.

“I’m wondering how this will affect Applied Sciences as a whole,” Emiko replied.

“The special division will have it’s own separate budget from Applied Sciences, and in truth will only fall under your purview peripherally,” Oliver admitted. “I intend for Q-Core to answer directly to me since its goals will be to provide gear and technology to the Justice League primarily and an intelligence branch secondarily.”

“Q-Core?” Briggs asked.

“Named after the character from James Bond,” Oliver said with a shrug. Briggs’ lips twitched while Emiko shook her head. Green Arrow, Dark Archer, Q-Core… her brother was a certifiable dork.

Briggs considered what Oliver had said. “What about my staff? Would I have final say on all projects?” he asked.

“You would have final say on all projects, focusing on those which are most viable at first, I would assume,” Oliver replied, and Briggs nodded shortly. “As to your staff… I have a suggestion. A recent hire here at Queen Consolidated. He has no degrees, but he’s brilliant. I think he would be useful in your division.”

“I’d have to meet him before I made a decision,” Briggs said. “What’s his name?”

“Cisco Ramon,” Oliver replied. “Does this mean you’ll come back?”

“I must be crazy to return to the company that threw me away, but yes, I’ll come back and head up this Q-Core,” Briggs replied finally. “I can start at any time.”

“We can have the contracts drawn up by tomorrow and set aside part of Applied Sciences for you to work in,” Oliver said. “Once the new Applied Sciences center is built, you’ll have much better facilities, but for now all we’ll be able to afford to give you will be a small office space.”

“That’s fine,” Briggs grunted, standing and shaking each of their hands. “Thank you for the opportunity, Mr. Queen.”

“Thank you for deciding to come back, Dr. Briggs,” Oliver returned.

**_*DC*_ **

Laurel Lance studied the case file in front of her, though she was slightly distracted by the thoughts of what Oliver had done last night. He had tracked down Garfield Lynns, a badly-burned firefighter who had decided to take revenge for his situation on his former company. He had killed one of them, but Oliver had stopped him from killing another of them last night. The identity of that firefighter was what had Laurel struggling, because it had been Danny de la Vega, Joanna’s sister, who Lynns had targeted. If not for Oliver, Mrs. de la Vega would have lost her only remaining child. Laurel closed her eyes as another wave of grief washed over her. She was the reason that Mrs. de la Vega only had one child now; she was the one those mercenaries had come for, the mercenaries who had hit one of her best friends with a shotgun, shredding her stomach open and leaving her to bleed out. That was Laurel’s fault. If she had had more time training with Oliver, and Ted, and Sara, then maybe Joanna would still be alive rather than rotting in a coffin six feet under.

There was a soft, timid knock on the door of her office. She looked up, brow furrowing when she saw her mother standing on the other side, looking nervous. Laurel motioned her mother in, worried that this meant something awful had happened, or her mother had received bad news, like a cancer diagnosis. “Mom, are you okay?” Laurel asked.

“No, Laurel,” Dinah said. “I’ve been struggling with something since Thanksgiving, and I decided to come to Starling and tell you the truth. I need to do it, because a relationship built on lies can’t last, and I want to try and rebuild my relationship with you, and with your father.”

“Okay,” Laurel said slowly, gesturing for her mother to sit down. “Mom, what is it? Whatever it is, you can tell me.”

“You’re going to hate me for this, Laurel, and I won’t blame you,” Dinah said miserably. “I hate myself. I never should have done it.”

“Done what?” Laurel asked, leaning forward across her desk.

“The day the _Queen’s Gambit_ set sail, I came home early,” Dinah said softly. “I found Sara packing her bags.” Laurel stiffened at this. “I asked her where she was going, and she told me. I begged with her not to do it, Laurel, to not do this to you. But she told me that she was in love and that she wanted to follow her heart, like I had done with your father.” Dinah looked down, tears trickling down her cheeks. “I let her go. I let her go on the _Gambit_ , knowing that it would destroy you when you found out. That’s why I’ve kept my distance all these years. I helped destroy the life of one child in favor of supporting the dreams of the other, the one who was more like me.”

Laurel was silent as she slowly digested what her mother had said. Her mother had _known_ that Sara was going on the _Queen’s Gambit_ , had all but _encouraged it_ by letting her go on the boat instead of cracking down on her. Laurel had made her peace with Sara and Oliver, in part because the suffering her sister and boyfriend had endured in the past five years more than made up for what they had done to her, and it would be churlish of her to hold this against them all over again. But her _mother_ had knowingly allowed her to be destroyed. Laurel had been frozen in place for five long years because her _mother_ had allowed her sister to destroy her relationship with the man she loved, or so she had believed for so long. “Get out,” she finally said quietly.

“Laurel,” Dinah began.

“I said, get out,” Laurel said, face growing red with anger as angry tears welled in her green eyes. “I can’t even _look_ at you right now, Mom. Just… get out. And tell Dad. If he really wants you back, he should know everything.” Dinah nodded slowly and stood, heading out of the office without another word.

Laurel sat in her chair, rubbing her finger over the scar the Huntsman had given her, as she often did now when contemplating painful things. How was she supposed to reconcile this? How was she supposed to accept and forgive what her mother had done to her? Could she do so? She had forgiven Oliver and Sara, after all. But they had been dumb kids, just like she had been. Her mother had been an adult, one who had lived in the world and knew better than to go with flights of fancy as she had in her youth. Laurel picked up her cell phone and selected Oliver’s icon. She held the phone to her ear. She needed to talk to someone, anyone, about this. “Hey,” Oliver said warmly as he picked up. “How are things at C.N.R.I.?”

“Good, I guess,” Laurel said. “But… My mom just showed up and dropped a bomb on me, and I don’t know how to deal with it, Ollie. It _hurts_.”

“What happened?” Oliver asked quietly.

“She knew Sara went on the _Gambit_ the day it left,” Laurel said softly, and heard Oliver’s sharp intake of breath. “She knew what it would do to me, but she let it happen. I-I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel, Ollie. I’ve forgiven you and Sara, but that’s because I know you’ve more than suffered enough. Nothing either of you did could ever require the torture you went through as penance. But Mom-Mom _knew_. She knew that Sara was going to blow up my relationship with you and she didn’t even have the decency to _acknowledge_ this fact all these years. She only did it now because she wants to rebuild our relationship, be a family again like Sara and Dad want. I-I don’t know what to do, Ollie.”

Oliver was silent on the other end. “I know a little something about feeling betrayed by those you were meant to look up to,” Oliver finally said. “I can’t say you should forgive your mother, Laurel, because God knows I haven’t forgiven my parents for what they did, what they put on us. But you should do whatever is best for _you_ in the end. Not your family or their expectations, not what I think, not what you think is expected of you because of that huge heart of yours. You need to do what is best for you, because you deserve to be happy, to be able to say, ‘This isn’t okay.’” **_*3*_**

“Thank you, Ollie,” Laurel whispered. “Do you mind having a guest for dinner tonight?”

“You’re always welcome at my table, Laurel,” Oliver said. “It’s Swedish Meatballs tonight.”

“Sounds great,” Laurel said. “I’ll see you tonight, Ollie.”

**_*DC*_ **

Thea Queen was dreading going through the front door of her and Oliver’s loft. He was going to be _pissed_. She had been pushing through the reporters when one of them asked her what it felt like to be replaced by someone who was actually a Queen, and she had snapped, saying, “That woman might be a Queen by blood, but I was _raised_ by Robert Queen as his daughter! I’ve never even heard of this woman so it’s obvious he was ashamed of her!” The reporter had looked like Christmas had come early, and Thea had hustled away into the Bentley, dreading what was coming. Now she was standing outside the door to the apartment, hand reached out but frozen in place. Finally, before she could turn away and leave, the door opened, and Oliver appeared on the other side of the door.

“Get inside, Thea,” Oliver said quietly but with a hint of steel in his tone. Thea flinched but shuffled inside. Oliver shut the door behind her and moved to the counter, where there was a tablet. He played a video of her statement back for her. “This was a hateful thing to say, Thea, and patently untrue,” Oliver said quietly. “The only thing you’ve done is proven how much like our mother you are. She treated Emiko and Kazumi like dirt on the bottom of her shoe, too. She forced Dad to abandon Emiko and Kazumi for the sake of maintaining the image of the perfect family. She went to Kazumi after Dad died, told her how Dad wanted her to be provided for, and how Mom had arranged to ensure that never happened. I have been doing my _best_ to make sure Kazumi and Emiko don’t see you in the same light. You’ve ruined any chance of that, now. In their eyes, you are every bit Moira Queen’s daughter.”

“I didn’t mean for it to happen, Ollie,” Thea said, tears shining in her hazel eyes. “I-I just got so frustrated. I’m sorry.”

“I’m not the one you need to apologize to,” Oliver said firmly. “Kazumi and Emiko will be joining us tonight. You _will_ apologize for them and sign your name to an official press release denouncing your words. Is that understood?”

“Yes,” Thea said in a small voice.

“Good. Now go upstairs and work on your homework,” Oliver said. “I don’t want to see you until dinner.”

Thea shuffled up the stairs, sniffling and trying to maintain the calm, poised air her mother had tried to instill in her. He hated her; she just knew her brother hated her for what she had said. He hated their parents, and he had just told her she was just like Moira! He hated her… **_*4*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* Okay, this is something that needs to be addressed. Years ago, before 4x18, April 10th was used as Laurel’s birthday on the Arrow wiki. This is the same birthday as her comics counterpart, and it was considered her official birthday until 4x18. The Olicity fans who control the wiki removed her birthday altogether, and recently people have used Katie Cassidy’s birthday as a placeholder. Unfortunately, this can’t be because Laurel is a classmate of Oliver and Tommy and if she were born in November while they were born in February and May, she would be in a different grade from them. Therefore, I am using April 10th, Laurel’s *original* birthday.
> 
> *2* Oliver and Emiko’s relationship will have a larger role in this story, and at one point, I suspect that the battle for Emiko’s soul will take center stage. On another note, IMO, the board would flip out if Malcolm Merlyn’s daughter inherited, which is why Oliver isn’t considering it even if he trusted Thea to act like an adult (which he doesn’t).
> 
> *3* In the show, Laurel is an incredibly forgiving person with a huge heart. But despite finding out what Dinah did, she kept her mother in her life, and I feel it’s because she felt she didn’t have the right to be angry in the face of Dinah’s grief at believing she had helped kill Sara. In this case, Sara is very much alive, and Dinah’s guilt is of a different kind, so I wanted Laurel to struggle.
> 
> *4* Okay, writing this scene was pretty brutal. I really felt bad for Thea because this was an honest mistake that came from a brief bout of anger. But Oliver’s intent on showing her actions have consequences in the adult world, and that means he’s having to take a hardline stance that she’s not used to. So, in her eyes, this means that he hates her because he hates their parents.


	7. Planetfall

“I understand, Kazumi,” Oliver Queen said soothingly, eyes never leaving his guilty-looking sister, who Laurel had an arm wrapped around. “After what Thea said today, of course you and Emiko wouldn’t feel comfortable coming over and being in the same room with her. Just know that Thea _is_ sorry for what she said, and when you’re ready to accept it, she has an apology for you and Emiko. In the meantime, give Emiko my best and tell her I’ll see her at work tomorrow.” Oliver hung up and turned to the stove, grabbing one of the plates and beginning to scoop noodles onto the plate followed by the meatballs and gravy. He turned and set the plate down in front of Thea. “Eat up. We won’t be having guests, after all, and we’ll be heading to the Quiver soon.”

“I’m sorry, Ollie,” Thea said quietly.

“I know, Thea,” Oliver said with a sigh. He couldn’t stay angry at her, even though she had risked his growing relationship with the Adachis with her callous words and attitude. “But this is what I meant this morning. Being an adult is about more than just turning eighteen. It’s about facing the consequences of our actions and learning to live with them. I know you’ve been struggling a lot with my decision to cut you off, but that’s because I genuinely believed it was the only way to help you grow. And you have been growing, Speedy. The fact you show genuine remorse for what you said about Emiko without knowing all of the facts shows the good, kind-hearted young woman I know you to be.”

“Thanks, Ollie,” Thea said a bit shyly. “Does this mean we can talk about the whole ‘cut off’ thing?”

“When you turn eighteen, I’ll flip the switch,” Oliver promised. “I just hope you’ll prove to be responsible with access to your accounts again.”

“I will be,” Thea replied. “I won’t run away again, Ollie. I-I know what’s waiting for me if I did.” _The League of Assassins_ went unsaid around the counter. “What’s the plan for tonight?”

“We’ll be doing some training before I go out on patrol,” Oliver said, having dished out servings of Swedish Meatballs for himself and Laurel and handing his girlfriend her plate. The three began to eat. After chewing and swallowing a rather large meatball, Oliver continued, “Unless something major happens, it should be just a normal night.” As if that had been a herald of doom, a phone rang, but it wasn’t Oliver’s normal cell phone or the landline, but the black phone that was hardened for government communication. Oliver straightened, picked up the phone, and answered. “Yes?”

“Mr. Queen,” President Trumbull said on the other end of the line, “I’m sorry to disturb you, but something’s come up that I need you and Superman to handle.”

“What’s going on, Mr. President?” Oliver said professionally.

“Thanks to past experiences with extra-terrestrials, we’ve always maintained a watch on the stars,” Trumbull said. “We’ve picked up two energy signatures, one small and the other large, approaching Earth at high speeds, too high to be debris or a comet. Our estimates indicate they will touch down in the Mojave Desert in two hours. We want you and Superman to investigate and determine the intent of whoever may be onboard these vessels. Our new response division meant to deal with alien life will meet you there, but until they arrive it will be up to you and Superman to contain the situation.”

“I understand, sir,” Oliver said. “We’ll handle it.”

“Good,” Trumbull replied. “The projected coordinates are being sent to you as we speak. Your contact with the Department of Extranormal Operations will be Director Hank Henshaw. Good luck, Mr. Queen.” The president hung up, and Oliver checked the display on the phone, which showed a set of coordinates. Oliver looked at his girlfriend and sister, who were watching him carefully.

“Ollie, what is it?” Laurel asked.

“Superman and I have a mission,” Oliver replied. Thea couldn’t help it; she let out a whimper. She had known her brother would be sent on missions now that there was more than just him in the Justice League but knowing and _witnessing_ were two different things. “Long-range scans have picked up two objects that are projected to land in the Mojave Desert in two hours.”

“Objects?” Thea asked tentatively.

“Spacecraft,” Oliver said evenly. “One is small, the other large.”

“What if they’re hostile?” Laurel asked worriedly.

“That’s why Superman is coming along,” Oliver said, “and why I’ll only be taking basic lethal arrows and explosive arrows.” Oliver picked up his phone. “I need to make a call.” He stepped out onto the balcony, closing the door behind him to keep his girlfriend and sister from overhearing before he selected Clark’s name from his contacts and hit the dial button. He raised the phone to his ear, waiting for Clark to pick up.

“Oliver?” Clark asked cautiously as he picked up.

“We have a mission,” Oliver said. “Two spacecraft are going to touch down in the Mojave Desert in two hours. The President wants us on-site before they get there. Pick me up on the roof of Queen Consolidated in an hour and a half. I figure it won’t take you that long to get us to the coordinates.”

“I’ll be there,” Clark promised, and hung up. Oliver returned to his meal, all while wondering what this could be. This couldn’t have been something that happened in the previous timeline because there was _no_ D.E.O. on Earth-1 until Kara Danvers had suggested it to the new president. Speaking of, that was another change; Trumbull was still president when he hadn’t been when the Dominators came, so he should’ve been out of office by now. Oliver could only assume one of the timeline messes that Barry or the Legends had created had changed things. Oliver could only hope that his arsenal of arrows and Superman’s abilities would be enough to contain whatever arrived.

**_*DC*_ **

Green Arrow was waiting on the rooftop of Queen Consolidated when Superman touched down. “We need to talk,” Superman said seriously.

“What is it?” Green Arrow asked.

“I have a place that I call the Fortress of Solitude, a last remnant of Krypton recreated here on Earth,” Superman said. “It has far more sophisticated scanners than those of Earth. I turned them on the incoming craft. The smaller craft is a Kryptonian pod, and according to the records at the Fortress, it’s the pod that my cousin was sent after me in.”

“Kara?” Green Arrow asked reflexively.

“How do you- right. Alternate Earths, future knowledge,” Superman sighed. “But that’s not the problem, Oliver. The other signature is Fort Rozz.”

“Which is?”

“Fort Rozz is Krypton’s maximum-security prison, where they sent the worst of the worst in the universe,” Superman replied. “Including some of Krypton’s worst criminals. We may not be able to contain the situation, Oliver. Not with just the two of us, especially since we will have to keep my cousin safe while we’re at it. She’s the daughter of the high justice who sent most if not all of those criminals to rot there. They’ll want to kill her to satisfy their bloodlust against her mother.” Superman hesitated, then said, “And they’ll probably want to do the same to me. It was my great-great-grandfather who discovered the Phantom Zone, my grandfather who conceived of using it as a prison for the worst criminals in the universe. The prisoners of Fort Rozz hate the entirety of the House of El.” **_*1*_**

“In that case,” Green Arrow said, “the restraint you’ve been showing may not be wise. This may be one of those situations where it’s best for you to go all-out.”

“If it looks to be that way, I will,” Superman promised. “Shall we?”

“Let’s get this over with,” Green Arrow replied, stepping up beside Superman, wrapping one arm around Superman’s shoulders while Superman’s right arm curled around his torso. A moment later, they were airborne and traveling at high speeds. Green Arrow kept his eyes closed the entire trip, focusing on not becoming nauseous. He had forgotten what it was like to travel at super-speed. Soon, the two of them touched down in the middle of the desert. Green Arrow noted a rattlesnake slithering away but wasn’t concerned. Superman was invulnerable and he might as well be in the RQ-1141, at least as far as a rattler’s fangs were concerned. “So, how old is your cousin supposed to be? The Kara I knew was in her twenties.”

“Well, she left Krypton at same time as me,” Superman replied. “She was thirteen at the time. Considering she must’ve become stuck in the Phantom Zone for Fort Rozz to be trailing her, she’s probably still thirteen.” Superman turned to look at Oliver. “What was she like? The Kara you knew?”

“Well, keep in mind the one I knew was from another universe,” Green Arrow said, and Superman nodded. “She was perpetually cheerful and found great joy in this life. She called herself Supergirl, and her original outfit reminded me of a caped cheerleader’s outfit with thigh boots.” Superman reddened slightly at that. “Don’t worry, I had no designs on her, none of us did,” Green Arrow said, noting the Man of Steel’s expression. “But the last time I saw her, she’d gotten an upgrade and had pants instead of a skirt.” Green Arrow was silent for a moment. “She was there when I died. I’d just given all my energy to defend the evacuation of her Earth to mine. According to the Monitor, I saved a billion lives by taking on the Anti-Monitor’s Shadow Demons on my own.”

“That’s amazing,” Superman said quietly, marveling at the fortitude Green Arrow possessed, to have gone through all of that and _choose_ to go through it all again.

“Not so amazing when you consider I had to erase that timeline altogether to stop some of my friends from putting a stop to the changes I was making,” Green Arrow said. Superman cocked his head, confused. “The long and short of it is that I had to kill a man to stop that timeline from happening, but with his death I destroyed all those people that I saved.” Green Arrow looked up at the stars. “I sometimes have nightmares where I’m faced with my old friends, your cousin, and others I erased, all demanding to know why I would do it.”

“I’m sorry,” Superman said genuinely. “But that doesn’t erase the fact you saved all of those lives, Oliver. And they still technically exist since that universe hasn’t been destroyed yet. Don’t think of it as erasing all those lives; think of it as resetting the clock, giving all of those people, including those you failed to save the first time, a second chance at life, the same second chance that the Monitor gave to you.”

Green Arrow was contemplative as he considered Superman’s words. “I never thought of it that way before,” he admitted. “I’ll have to consider it. Thank you, Clark.”

“Anytime,” Superman said mildly, and the two fell into a companionable silence, waiting for Kara’s pod and Fort Rozz to arrive. Soon, they saw the silvery pod descending at a rapid rate, glancing off of a mountainside before coming crashing down, skidding to a stop not fifteen feet away even as the monstrous form of Fort Rozz crashed down in the distance. Green Arrow nocked an arrow as he and Superman moved forward, Superman floating a half a foot off of the ground as they made their way to the pod. Superman ripped the canopy off of the pod to expose a young girl in a white dress with the symbol of the House of El embossed on it, her dark blonde hair mussed and her blue eyes confused as she stared up at the two of them. Her eyes fixated on the symbol on Superman’s chest.

“No,” she whispered. “No, this can’t be. There’s no one else left but me and Kal.”

“I am Kal-El, Kara,” Superman said kindly, crouching down so that their eyes were meeting. Kara’s eyes were wide at his words. “You got stuck in the Phantom Zone, but you’re here now, and I’m going to take care of you, like you were supposed to take care of me.”

“Superman,” Green Arrow called, nodding in the direction of Fort Rozz. Superman picked Kara up and placed her behind them. She clung to Superman’s cape, afraid at the sight of the prisoners of Fort Rozz moving towards them. “None of them look Kryptonian,” Green Arrow observed. “And it looks like only about twenty are coming after us at the moment. The rest look like they’re running free. That’s gonna cause problems in the future.”

“Agreed,” Superman said grimly, “but for the time being we have to focus on the immediate threat. The remaining prisoners can be dealt with when the time comes.” He examined the oncoming horde. “I have to admit, I don’t like our odds even without my fellow Kryptonians being a part of this.”

“Would a third be helpful?” asked a man’s voice, and both Green Arrow and Superman jerked around to find a man descending towards them, a green uniform that seemed to have been pasted onto his body and mask glowing with an ethereal light, the same as the ring on his finger. “The name’s Hal Jordan. I’m the Green Lantern assigned to this sector. When we detected Fort Rozz had escaped the Phantom Zone and that it had slaved itself to the Kryptonian pod heading for Earth, I was informed and sent to intercept.” **_*2*_**

“We’ll take any help we can get, Green Lantern,” Superman said respectfully. “I’ve read about your organization in the archives at the Fortress of Solitude. They’re an intergalactic space force,” he added, seeing Green Arrow’s look. “Hal Jordan, meet Oliver Queen, or Green Arrow as he’s known on Earth. I’m Kal-El of Krypton, Clark Kent and Superman to the people of Earth.”

“And the girl?” Green Lantern asked.

“My cousin,” Superman replied. “Kara.”

“Glad we got the introductions out of the way,” Green Lantern said. “They’re almost on us.”

“So they are,” Green Arrow said, firing the basic lethal arrow he had nocked at the closest alien criminal, who wouldn’t have looked out of place in werewolf movie. The arrow sailed straight and true and embedded itself in the werewolf’s eye, causing it to collapse. “And here I took that down without any silver bullets,” Green Arrow quipped, earning a smirk from Green Lantern and a head-shake from Superman.

“Vrangs are strong, but not invulnerable,” Green Lantern said as he used his ring to construct what looked like a minigun and begin firing it at the oncoming horde while Superman fired off his Heat Vision. “You got lucky. Some are as invulnerable as Kryptonians would be under a yellow sun.” Green Lantern stopped using the constructed mini-gun and made a fist, the ring glowing, and made a swinging motion. A giant green fist erupted from the ring on his finger and struck three different prisoners before dissipating. Green Arrow fired off a pair of explosive arrows, sending a couple of groups of prisoners sprawling with burns. Superman unleashed his freeze breath and delivered a full-strength straight punch to a prisoner who managed to get close, sending that prisoner flying back. On the battle went, and soon, the three heroes were standing in front of a scared but awed Kara Zor-El, who had never seen such displays of power and violence. “That was enjoyable,” Green Lantern said, touching down on the desert floor.

“I suppose,” Green Arrow said dubiously. “So, intergalactic cop, huh?”

“That’s right,” Green Lantern said. “Why?”

“Just wondering if this means you’ll be sticking around Earth for the time being while we track down the rest of the Zoners,” Green Arrow replied.

“Zoners? I like the sound of that,” Superman said appreciatively.

“Yes, I’ll be sticking around,” Green Lantern replied to Green Arrow’s question. “Why?” Green Arrow looked over at Superman, raising a quizzical eyebrow. Superman shrugged in response. “What?” Green Lantern asked.

“Things have changed on Earth recently,” Green Arrow said, “and I’m kind of the reason for that. The President has asked me to form a team of government-sponsored heroes to counter threats like those the Zoners are going to pose. We’re calling it the Justice League. I’d like you to consider aligning with us, even if it’s just as a liaison with the Green Lanterns.”

Green Lantern was contemplative. “I think I’m going to need to find out exactly what’s happened on Earth since I left before I make any sort of commitment there,” Green Lantern replied. “But I don’t see why I wouldn’t liaise with a group dedicated to protecting the planet. How do I find you when I make the decision, one way or the other?”

“I’m the C.E.O. of Queen Consolidated in Starling City,” Green Arrow replied. “I’m also the only publicly-known hero, so it won’t be odd to anyone for someone unusual to be seeking me out.”

“Sounds fair,” Green Lantern said. He looked over Green Arrow’s shoulder. “It looks like we’re going to have company.” Green Arrow and Superman turned to face the direction as Green Lantern stepped up beside them. What appeared to be tanks and military vehicles were approaching. Superman and Green Arrow exchanged glances, and Superman ushered his cousin behind him, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder as the vehicles crawled to a stop. Men in black ops gear poured out of the military vehicles, an African American man Green Arrow recognized as J’onn J’onzz leading the way. He recalled Barry telling him that Kara’s boss had taken over the identity of an anti-alien bigot, and he hoped that this one wasn’t like that (or that this Earth’s J’onn had already taken the man’s form).

“Director Henshaw, I presume,” Green Arrow said calmly. “As you can see, all that’s needed from you and your people is to contain those prisoners who attacked us. I’m afraid the majority have likely made their escape.”

“We have keyhole satellites trained on the area, tracking any loose ends,” Henshaw said. “But I see that there’s one that still isn’t contained or down,” he added, looking at the half-hidden Kara. “Why isn’t that thing contained like the rest of these animals?”

The reaction to Henshaw’s words was instant. Green Lantern stepped forward, opening his mouth to deliver a scathing retort, Superman moved to stand in front of Kara, and Green Arrow… Green Arrow drew and fired a basic lethal arrow, piercing through Henshaw’s right lower leg and bringing him to the ground with a scream of agony. “That ‘thing’ is a scared little girl who doesn’t deserve to be treated so scornfully by a xenophobic piece of shit,” Green Arrow snarled, his mind going to the Kara he knew, the cheerful powerhouse who had saved his life a couple of times, as he had hers. He wasn’t going to let this bigot insult the younger version of that woman, even if he still didn’t understand why all of this was happening now when it hadn’t before.

“I have orders from the president!” Henshaw snarled. “All alien life is to be contained!”

“The girl is under the League’s protection,” Green Arrow returned. “And I will be speaking to the president about his choice in _director_. A xenophobe like you shouldn’t be the Earth’s representative when dealing with the denizens of the stars. We wouldn’t want people thinking we’re a xenophobic backwater, would we?”

Green Lantern stepped forward. “As a representative of the Green Lantern Corps., it is my duty to inform you that I will be operating on Earth for the foreseeable future,” he said. “I am from this world, and I know the reputation we have in the stars. From what I’ve seen here, Green Arrow is more likely to serve as the best example of humanity to the citizens of the universe. A man like you could cause an interstellar war. I expect you to report that to the president when you speak to him, Green Arrow,” he added.

“I will be,” Green Arrow said. He turned his attention back on the wounded Henshaw. “The girl is Superman’s cousin, and she will be under his guardianship,” he informed the man. “You can have the pod, Fort Rozz, the captured prisoners… but you can’t have her. I won’t allow it.”

Henshaw’s eyes narrowed while his men tightened their grips on their weapons. Aliens were a threat to humanity, Henshaw understood that. But the president saw the Justice League as the mark he would make on the world, and challenging them so openly, or killing the leader of the League in their first official mission, would see Henshaw renditioned into a deep dark hole where he couldn’t protect the world from the alien filth. “Very well,” he ground out.

“Seeing as Superman is going to be having his hands full with his cousin, I’ll give you a lift back to Starling City,” Green Lantern offered to Green Arrow.

“I appreciate it,” Green Arrow said. A few moments later, Green Lantern rose into the air, a green bubble surrounding Green Arrow who rose alongside him, while Superman rose into the air with his cousin wrapped around him. The four flew off into the night, fully-aware of Henshaw’s hateful glare.

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver entered his apartment later that night, feeling tired. He had gone on a patrol following his return to Starling City to banish the excess negative energy before he spoke to the president. He made his way to the phone, snatched it up, and hit the only speed dial programmed in before putting it to his ear. He knew the president would be waiting for his call. “Mr. Queen,” Trumbull greeted.

“Mr. President,” Oliver returned the greeting. “I have to ask if you’ve heard from Director Henshaw yet?”

“No, and I don’t expect to until he’s done processing the scene,” Trumbull replied. “Did something happen I should be aware of?”

“You do realize you chose one of the most xenophobic people possible to head up the division that is intended to interact with citizens of the stars?” Oliver asked. “The man referred to a 13-year-old Kryptonian girl as a ‘thing’ and wanted her ‘contained’. You will no doubt hear his complaint about my shooting him in response.”

“You _shot_ him?” Trumbull asked, astounded.

“In the leg,” Oliver replied. “Mr. President, tonight Superman and I were aided by a member of the Green Lantern Corps., an intergalactic space force, and he will be taking up residence on Earth while the prisoners of Fort Rozz are hunted down. Superman discovered that the large object was Krypton’s maximum-security prison, holding the worst of the universe. The Green Lantern told me quite a bit on our way back to Starling City, including the fact that the Guardians of the Universe, his superiors, consider their laws absolute and that Henshaw could cause an interstellar war with his attitude, which would require the Green Lantern Corps. to step in and defend Earth or, at the very least, mediate a ceasefire. I have to strongly recommend that you find someone different to head up the D.E.O. A xenophobe is the _wrong_ choice, sir. That would be like putting a Nazi in charge of a summer camp for Jewish children.” **_*3*_**

“I… see your point, Mr. Queen,” President Trumbull said. “Mr. Henshaw was appointed by the Secretary of Defense due to his zeal in wishing to protect the country, and the world, from alien threats. Perhaps we rushed too quickly to organize the D.E.O. I will have Henshaw removed and have the next candidate vetted thoroughly.”

“Thank you, sir,” Oliver said. “In the meantime, we need to talk about granting citizenship to Superman’s cousin. I hope that I have the authority to arrange such things for those who are no threat with the D.E.O. currently suspended?”

“For now, Mr. Queen, but you must take caution in pushing the bounds of your authority,” Trumbull said. “And do try to avoid shooting the next Director of the D.E.O. You need to be able to work _with_ the government divisions, not run roughshod over them.”

“I understand,” Oliver said. “Goodnight, Mr. President.”

“Goodnight, Mr. Queen.” The two hung up and Oliver set the phone down before heading up to bed. It had been a long day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* This is a reference to SyFy’s “Krypton”, where Val-El is the one who discovers the Phantom Zone.
> 
> *2* The way I see it, something as huge as Krypton’s maximum-security prison freeing itself from the Phantom Zone would attract the attention of Oa and have them send the Lantern assigned to the sector it was due to land in. For those wondering, I’m picturing a young Adam Baldwin as Hal Jordan. He voiced the character in “Injustice: Gods Among Us”.
> 
> *3* This is my honest opinion of what a man like Henshaw being in charge of the D.E.O. means. Considering what he becomes in S2 of “Supergirl”, I would say Henshaw is pretty close to a Nazi as far as aliens are concerned.


	8. Confessions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This is the last chapter I have written. I’m posting it now instead of tomorrow because I’m probably gonna be taking a small break from writing. I will more than likely try to rebuild a lead on this story before I begin posting again since I enjoy having a lead. This chapter has what I feel is a good ending without any major loose ends to tie up, whereas last chapter kind of left things hanging. Another reason I’m posting this chapter now.

Oliver Queen entered Queen Consolidated the next morning with a determined expression on his face. He knew that one reason that the Adachis hadn’t come over last night was because Emiko was dealing with the pain of the memories that Thea’s callous words had brought up. Oliver knew from his talks with Emiko in the future where he had tried to reach her that Robert abandoning her had hurt her badly, even if she didn’t come right out and say it, and for Thea to essentially throw the fact that Robert might’ve been ashamed of her out there in a fit of anger… Oliver sighed. Things with Thea were going to be rough for a while because she was still growing up. Her growth as a person had essentially been stunted due to a lack of punishment on his mother’s part and, if Oliver were honest with himself, that was something Thea had never really faced even in the future. He had never confronted her about the choices she made, like continually letting Malcolm into her heart. But in this timeline, she was facing the consequences of her actions.

So, Oliver was determined to find Emiko and talk to her, let her know that he didn’t think the same way as Thea and that even if their father had somehow been ashamed of Emiko that Oliver wasn’t, that he was proud of the woman she had become _despite_ the fact that their father had abandoned her. Oliver made his way to Applied Sciences and found Emiko working at her desk. “Hey,” he said quietly as he approached. She started and looked up. He noted her eyes were red-rimmed before she looked down. He pulled up a seat in front of the desk and sat there, waiting.

Finally, she looked up. “What do you want, Oliver?” Emiko asked.

“To let you know that I do not agree with what Thea said yesterday,” Oliver said. “I’m not going to make excuses for her, either. She’s almost eighteen and she’s going to have to learn to live with the consequences of her actions. I also wanted to make sure that you know that whatever our father thought, _I_ am proud of you. You managed to make something of yourself _without_ his help, Emiko, and as far as I’m concerned, you’ve more than earned the right to call yourself a Queen. For what it’s worth, Thea _is_ sorry. She let her anger get the best of her. But I won’t excuse what she did. It was horrible, no matter what her reasons.”

“Thank you, Oliver,” Emiko said quietly. “I knew this was going to be hard, coming out into the open and being acknowledged as an illegitimate child of Robert Queen, but having someone who was _raised_ by Dad throw that out there… it hit harder than I’d like to admit because…”

“Because you wish he could’ve been there for all of your life and not just the beginning of it,” Oliver finished quietly. Emiko nodded, looking at him curiously, wondering how he had known about that. “Emiko, I literally cannot be a part of my son’s life because of who I am and what I do, and it kills me to know that I can never be there for him. And I know that Mom forced the issue for Dad being there for you. He could have chosen to be there for you regardless of what Mom said, and he should have. But I don’t think there wasn’t a day that went by when he didn’t regret getting put into that position. But in the end, the only one who could answer that is Dad, and he won’t be telling us any more secrets from beyond the grave. So, we have to forge a future for ourselves without his shadow or the shadow of my mother looming over us. And I want to forge that future with you, together, as brother and sister.”

Emiko reached out a hand and Oliver gripped it firmly, smiling at his sister. “Thank you… brother,” Emiko said quietly.

**_*DC*_ **

Hal Jordan, dressed in jeans, a T-shirt, and his leather bomber jacket, leaned back in his chair with a thoughtful expression on his face. He had spent the time investigating what had happened on Earth since his induction into the Green Lantern Corps., and the two big takeaways had been Oliver Queen’s rather public takedown of Malcolm Merlyn, who had been planning to level a city district in Starling City, and the debut of Superman. Having fought alongside both men, Hal had to admit to being impressed with them. They had fought against those prisoners from Fort Rozz with a tenacity that few possessed even in the Corps., and they had been willing to stand toe-to-toe against that man, Henshaw, in order to protect the little girl. Hal would admit that if Henshaw had forced the issue, he would’ve bound the man and taken him to Oa to be judged. Because Kara Zor-El was a denizen of the stars, she fell under the protection of the Green Lantern Corps., and so too now did every being on Earth, human or not.

What intrigued Hal was that Oliver Queen/Green Arrow had spent two months taking down Merlyn and dismantling his terrorist cabal, Tempest, even going on the run and living as a fugitive while fighting for the people of his city. That kind of dedication was to be admired, not scorned, and Hal was now very willing to work with the Justice League. He would wait a week, reacclimate to the world, and then he would go to Starling City. In the meantime, he would need to see if he could get his old job as a test pilot for Ferris Air back and come up with a plausible explanation for why he hadn’t been around since the incident that saw his plane destroyed and him elevated to being a Green Lantern. Amnesia and hospitalization, maybe? Wait, no, he would need _evidence_ of that unless it was in a third world country. Maybe he would need to approach Queen sooner, ask for help in re-establishing himself on Earth.

Well, there wasn’t much he could do until he was back in the world, so he should probably make his way to Starling City to speak to Queen.

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver was in his office going over paperwork when his office phone beeped. “Mr. Queen, this is Tracy down at the front desk. We have a man here who’s insisting to speak to you. He gave his name as Hal Jordan. What would you like done?”

“Send him up,” Oliver said, lips twitching. It appeared Mr. Jordan had done his homework in record time. Oliver waited, and eventually Jordan appeared in civvies, coming through the glass door. Oliver gestured towards the seats in front of his desk. “Please, Hal, sit,” Oliver said quietly. “I hope you’ve come to a decision.”

“I have,” Hal replied. “I’ll work with you and Superman in this ‘League’ of yours, if only as a liaison. But I was hoping that you could do something for me.”

“What?” Oliver asked.

“I need a plausible history for why I vanished a couple of years back,” Hal replied. “I was thinking I could pretend to have been in amnesiac state, but that requires hospital records. I was hoping you could help with that or give me an employment history to cover that time period.”

“I can have a friend forge a work history for you, I just need to know the date you would have started,” Oliver replied. “In the meantime, if you need a place to stay, I’ve got a place you can bunk down.”

“I appreciate it,” Hal replied with a nod.

**_*DC*_ **

A few days later, Oliver Queen and Laurel Lance stepped off of the private Gulfstream that had brought them to Metropolis, Laurel holding on tight to a manila envelope stuffed full of paperwork. She and Oliver had worked together to create an identity for Superman’s young cousin. Oliver had insisted she have the name Kara Danvers, which Laurel found odd since he had had such an unpleasant relationship with Agent Alex Danvers of the F.B.I., and Henry had ‘uploaded’ her file into the system from the Quiver (which was now connected to all government systems thanks to Green Arrow’s status), allowing her to be recognized as a citizen of the country. Laurel had all of her vital paperwork in the manila envelope, including vaccination records and the like.

Oliver and Laurel got into the town car, Oliver smiling and giving a nod as he recognized the driver as Bob Willis, the man who had driven him around when he was last in Metropolis. Bob returned the nod, and the town car pulled out of the hangar. Oliver had sent the itinerary for their trip ahead, and so Bob headed directly for the building in downtown Metropolis where Clark and Lois made their home, and where thirteen-year-old Kara Danvers, as she was to be known, was now living. “So, think you’ll be dragged into another high society event while you’re here?” Laurel asked Oliver. “Because I didn’t pack anything that could let me go to one of those.”

“If it happens, we can buy you a new dress here in Metropolis,” Oliver pointed out with a smile. “But I doubt it. Last time was pure coincidence, and it turns out Lex had sent an invite through normal channels. Queen Consolidated’s internal mail room mixed things up and it ended up going to the furnace as junk mail. The person in charge of the department was very embarrassed.”

“I can imagine,” Laurel said dryly. “So, have you met her?”

“Yes,” Oliver said. “I was there when she arrived. I found her to be a little shy, but then, who wouldn’t be under those circumstances?” Laurel nodded silently, knowing they couldn’t talk details with the driver present. “How are you doing with what your mother told you?”

“Not here,” Laurel said tightly, and Oliver nodded. The two fell into a companionable, if somewhat tense, silence as the car made it’s way through Metropolis. Finally, the car pulled to a stop outside of the apartment building where Clark and Lois lived. Exiting the car, Oliver and Laurel entered the building with little fuss (the doorman barely blinked at the sight of the Green Arrow in his civilian clothes) and were on the elevator soon enough. “I’m not doing good,” Laurel admitted to Oliver as the door closed. “I _feel_ like I should forgive her because we’re a family and everyone else in the family seems to want to bring us back together. But she betrayed me, Ollie, and in some ways her betrayal is a lot worse than what you and Sara did. You had at least some excuse, poor though they were. What was my mother’s excuse for letting Sara blow up my relationship?”

Laurel sighed, leaning against the back of the elevator. “I hate this, Ollie,” she said quietly. “I don’t know what to do. I-I don’t know if I can forgive her for this. Maybe if we still thought Sara was dead, and she blamed herself for Sara’s death, I could find it in my heart to forgive her. But now? It’s just… I forgave you and Sara, but the both of you went through hell. What did my mother go through?”

“The pain of losing a child,” Oliver said quietly. Laurel turned to look at him. “I’m not excusing what she did, Laurel. I’m just saying that she did go through a hell of her own. Maybe it’s not enough for you to forgive her. Like I said, I can’t really advise you to do that when I haven’t forgiven Robert and Moira for what they’ve done. In the end, only you can decide what you’re going to do with this, Laurel. But whatever you do, do it for _yourself_. Don’t be selfless this time; this is something that hurt you deeply, and it’s okay to want to react to that.”

The elevator doors opened again, and Oliver and Laurel stepped out of the elevator. Orienting themselves, the two turned to the right and made their way to apartment 1205, which Oliver knocked on. A few moments later, Lois Lane opened the door. “Mr. Queen, Miss Lance, welcome,” she said, opening the door.

“It’s Oliver and Laurel, Miss Lane,” Laurel said.

“Then it’s Lois,” said the woman in question. “Clark! Kara! Oliver and Laurel are here.” She stepped aside, swinging the door open for Oliver and Laurel to enter. The two stepped inside as Clark and Kara came from elsewhere in the apartment. Kara was now wearing jeans and a pink sweatshirt with a unicorn on it, and Oliver’s lips twitched because based on his interactions with her, that was a very _Kara_ look.

“Oliver,” Clark greeted, reaching out a hand, which Oliver shook. Clark turned his attention and hand to Laurel, who shook it. “Miss Lance, nice to meet you. Oliver’s said some very nice things about you.”

“Oh, has he?” Laurel said teasingly, giving her boyfriend a look. He just smiled at her. “Well, it’s nice to meet you as well, Mr. Kent.” She waved the manila envelope. “We have everything here that makes Kara an official citizen of the United States, and you and Lois her guardians.” She handed the envelope to Clark, who took it gently.

“Thank you,” Clark said fervently. “But how did you manage to do it?”

“I know a rather impressive hacker, who just so happens to have access to all government systems,” Oliver said with a small smile. “It was a simple matter of creating a background for her. All of the information on her background is in the folder; she’ll need to read it and memorize it, which I suppose won’t be a problem if the sun affects her the same way that it affects you.” Clark nodded his head to show it did. “Good. So, the only thing Kara really has to worry about is learning to control her abilities. Luckily, she has an expert she can lean on the experience of.”

“She does,” Clark said with a solemn nod. “With the Fort Rozz escapees still out there and no doubt wanting to take revenge on my Aunt Alura through her daughter, she needs my guidance and protection, and she’ll have it.” Clark put a hand on Kara’s shoulder comfortingly. She beamed up at him. It had been jarring for her, learning that the baby she had been sent to protect was now a man who didn’t need her protection, but at least he still wanted her in his life. She had been telling him stories about Krypton for the past few days, and he had been soaking it up, especially the stories about his parents. **_*1*_**

“Well, I’m glad we could help the two of you in some way,” Laurel said, giving the young girl a smile. She had been told about how that man, Hank Henshaw, had wanted this girl contained and no doubt experimented on, and she felt anger course through her veins at the thought that anyone would want to hurt this sweet little girl. She was absolutely adorable.

“Why don’t you join us for dinner?” Clark said suddenly. “I’m sure you’re hungry after your flight, and Lois no doubt wants to start off on the beginnings of her book about Oliver’s journey to becoming Green Arrow.” Oliver sighed at the gleam in Lois’ eyes that signaled that Clark was one hundred percent correct in his assessment.

“Well, that would be better than ordering in at the hotel,” Laurel said with a nod. “Ollie? What do you think?”

“Sounds fun,” Oliver said.

“Excellent,” Clark said. “Tonight, we’re having five-cheese lasagna.”

“Home-made or store-bought?” Laurel asked as they moved into the apartment proper.

“Home-made,” Lois said with a laugh. “Clark doesn’t _do_ store-bought. He learned to cook from his mother and refuses to take ‘the easy way’, as he calls it.”

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver and Laurel returned to Starling City the next afternoon. The first interview session between Oliver and Lois had gone well, in Oliver’s opinion. He had decided early on he was going to be brutally honest about what turned him into Green Arrow, to help people understand that this life wasn’t as simple as picking up a bow and swearing to make life better for other people. Obviously, he couldn’t tell Lois about Novu, but he could be honest about what he had experienced in his five years away. The first interview session had focused entirely on the events surrounding the sinking of the _Queen’s Gambit_ , which had been rather uncomfortable for Oliver since he had to explain the circumstances that had led to him taking Sara on the _Gambit_ , knowing what it made him sound like. But he was going for brutal honesty, and even if Laurel had become understanding of his reasons for doing what he did, it still made him sick that he had done that to her, especially with how improved their relationship was.

But the interview had also dwelled on the events on the life raft, and Oliver had been honest about the fact that his father and Dave Hackett made it to the life raft, with Robert killing Hackett and then himself in order to give Oliver a chance to survive. It had made Oliver think of Sam Hackett, who in the future had tried to coerce Oliver into confessing to what Robert had done after reading the transcripts of his sessions with Dr. Parker. Sam deserved to know the truth, which was why one of the things Oliver intended to do now that he was back in Starling was track down Sam and tell him the truth, even though he knew it could send Sam into a downward spiral that could result in the same sort of situation as before. Maybe knowing that the truth was going to come out in the book that Lois was writing would be enough to sate Sam’s thirst for justice for his father.

Laurel, on the other hand, was planning on talking with her mother again. Oliver had offered to be there for her, but Laurel had refused his offer, saying this was something that she needed to do herself. So it was that once they were back at their apartment building, they went to their separate cars and headed in different directions.

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver had tracked down Sam’s address while on the plane and drove to the tenement building in the Glades where Sam lived. He parked his Camaro outside the building and got out, taking note that the area was rundown and musing over whether he could help gentrify the area, make it better than it currently was. He entered the building and made his way to the third floor before finding himself in front of room 310. He knocked and heard shuffling footsteps. A moment later, the door swung open and the unkempt form of Sam Hackett stood framed in the doorway. He eyed Oliver blearily before he straightened. “Oliver?” Sam asked confusedly. “What are you doing here?”

“Making things right,” Oliver replied. “May I come in, Sam?” Sam nodded and stepped aside, letting Oliver in. The two took seats at the card table that served as where Sam ate his meals. “Sam, when I came back, I had to tell a lot of lies in order to keep Malcolm Merlyn from realizing the threat I posed to him and his plans for the Glades. Because of this, certain things never came to light about what happened when the _Gambit_ sank. But in the course of my duties, I’ve sold my life story, so to speak, to Lois Lane of the _Daily Planet_ and I had my first interview session with her yesterday in Metropolis. I decided I was going to be honest about what went down, and I wanted you to hear this from me instead of finding out about it for the first time when Lois’ book debuts.”

“What are you talking about, Oliver?” Sam asked.

“Our fathers both made it to the life raft with me, Sam,” Oliver replied, and Sam jerked in surprise. “But in the end, there wasn’t enough food and water for three men on the raft, and my father made a terrible choice to give me the chance to survive and make it home. He made a lot of terrible choices that day. He put the burden of righting his wrongs on me, and then he took out a gun, and he killed your father before killing himself. My father murdered yours, and I am so sorry that I didn’t come to tell you before now. But I couldn’t risk Merlyn finding out the truth.”

Sam looked down at the table. “You said this is going to end up in the book Lois Lane is writing? The people are going to know what your father did to mine?” Sam asked.

“Yes, Sam,” Oliver replied. “I’m not going to protect Robert’s reputation. He doesn’t deserve it.”

“Thank you,” Sam whispered. “Both for telling me and for not trying to hush this up. But I hope you understand that I really don’t want to see you right now.”

“I do,” Oliver said, standing up. “I hope this brings you some sense of peace, Sam. Goodbye.”

“Goodbye, Oliver,” Sam said, and Oliver left the dingy apartment, hoping that he had averted Sam’s future rampage by coming clean and promising that the truth would come out. **_*2*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Laurel squared her shoulders as she knocked on the door in front of her. She heard the sound of footsteps approaching, and then the door swung open to reveal her mother. “Laurel,” Dinah said. “I was beginning to think you weren’t going to see me again before I left town.”

“I had to take a few days to think about everything,” Laurel said tightly. “May I come in?” Dinah stepped aside without a word, and Laurel entered her mother’s hotel room. The two took seats on the couch. “I’m not going to beat around the bush, Mom,” Laurel said. “I don’t know if I can forgive you for what you did. Sara and Ollie, I forgave in part because they went through experiences that no one should have to go through. They’ve more than paid any price for what they did to me, and if I’m honest, I never wanted them to suffer. I just wanted them to admit that they were wrong to do that. You did that, and for that, I should forgive you.”

“But?” Dinah asked quietly.

“But you’re my _mother_ , and you betrayed me in a way worse than they did,” Laurel said. “You _let_ Sara go on the _Gambit_. You essentially told her it was _okay_ to blow up my relationship with the man that I loved because she had a _crush_ on him. That was _not_ okay, Mom. Just because you’ve acknowledged this doesn’t mean I can forgive you. The fact that you recognize what you did was wrong but have waited five years to acknowledge it makes this all the harder to forgive, especially since you didn’t once actually _apologize_ for it.”

“So, what now?” Dinah asked after it became clear that Laurel was not going to continue her line of thought.

“Now? I don’t know, Mom,” Laurel said. “A part of me wants to forgive you, wants our family to be whole again. But how do I reconcile my love for you with the hurt you’ve caused me? How can I honestly forgive you without sacrificing my own self-worth? How do I reconcile the woman who raised and loved me with the woman who betrayed me, who helped my _sister_ betray me in one of the worst ways possible? I’m sorry, Mom, but there’s no easy fix to this.” Her voice cracked with the last sentence. “I want there to be. I want our family to be whole, but not by sacrificing my own self-worth. I can’t do that anymore.”

“I understand,” Dinah said softly. “Your father is taking it hard as well. He’s always believed that if he and Sara had been closer, that if he had known she was going on the _Gambit_ , that he could’ve talked her out of it. Knowing that I had the chance and let her go is something he’s having a hard time accepting. I know there’s no easy fix, Laurel. But I hope the fact that I came to you and told you will earn me some goodwill down the road.”

“I can’t say for certain if it will,” Laurel said, tears glistening in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Mom.” Laurel stood, wiping at her eyes. “That’s all I came to say. Goodbye, Mom.” She turned and headed for the door, her heart wrenching in two as she heard her mother begin to sob before the door shut behind her, muffling the sounds of her mother’s sorrow. **_*3*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* As I understand it, Clark’s reason for putting Kara with the Danvers in-universe was to protect her from his enemies. In this situation, the bulk of his potential enemies are also after her because she’s the daughter of the woman who sentenced them. So, it makes sense that he would wish to keep her close. There’s also the fact that he doesn’t *have* any humans he trusts aside from Oliver and Lois, especially with the life of his cousin, whereas in “Supergirl” he knew and trusted the Danvers because they helped him understand his powers. In this, he learned about his powers all on his own.
> 
> *2* I didn’t want to leave this plot thread hanging much longer now that Merlyn is dead. Oliver, as he was when he died against the Shadow Demons, would have wanted to tell Sam Hackett the truth about what happened between their fathers, I feel, and so I decided to make sure that happened now that Oliver doesn’t have to hide who he is and what he does.
> 
> *3* This was a scene that I struggled with writing, because it would be very in-character for Laurel to forgive her mother since she did so on the show. But it would also be in-character for her to hold this against Dinah, so I settled on a middle ground of Laurel *wanting* to forgive her mother, but not sure how to do so without sacrificing her own self-respect and self-worth.


	9. Revelations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So, I’ve decided I’m going to go back to just writing this story chapter-by-chapter. Means daily updates probably won’t be a thing unless I have a burst of inspiration and write five chapters in one night or something.
> 
> Fair warning: my eyes watered a bit writing this chapter. You might want to have a tissue handy if you’re prone to emotions getting the best of you.

Oliver Queen entered his apartment, musing at the fact that it was silent. Thea was out at a late-night movie showing with Sara, trying to rekindle the bond they had had when Thea was younger, and Laurel was still en route from C.N.R.I. So, Oliver had the loft to himself for the time being and slowed when he realized that he wasn’t alone. “Talia,” he said quietly as he registered who was standing in front of the fireplace, where a fire was already crackling merrily. “What are you doing here?”

“Is that any way to greet your old teacher, Oliver?” Talia asked, turning to face him. “As it so happens, I was intending to come to speak to you regardless. A recent _encounter_ I had merely moved up my timetable.”

“Encounter?” Oliver echoed quietly, joining his teacher in front of the fireplace.

“Yes,” Talia replied softly. “An encounter with a ghost from my past and what I assume to be the master who holds his leash. Does the Council of Time Masters mean anything to you?”

“I’ve heard of it,” Oliver said calmly.

“Intriguing, since I can think of no reason you should have in the short time since we parted ways,” Talia replied. “But we can get to that in a moment. I came with a warning. Your city is in danger. Specifically, 502 lives that this Council claim you saved when you killed Malcolm Merlyn. They approached me with the contract, but I refused. I’ve put too much time and effort into you to become your adversary. But this means they will seek an alternative and I can think of only one other possibility that they could approach, one that will not care about collateral damage: H.I.V.E.” **_*1*_**

Oliver felt a cold chill go down his spine at that. “Your father’s old friend certainly wouldn’t care about collateral damage,” he said softly.

“The Council of Time Masters, Damien Darhk… how is it that you know these things, Oliver?” Talia asked. “Has it something to do with why you’ve so drastically changed from the man I trained in Russia?”

Oliver considered his former mentor for a moment. Considering she was long-lived herself and had seen many strange things, she would probably accept the unusual explanation. “For me, Russia was almost eight years ago, mentally speaking,” he finally said. “A cosmic being known as Mar-Novu granted me a second chance at life for services rendered in a conflict against the greatest evil that I have ever faced.”

Talia was silent as she digested this. “I see,” she said. “It does explain your dramatic shift in personality, methods, and your… flamboyance with which you conduct yourself.” She stared into the fires. “In this future… did you become my father’s successor?”

“After a fashion, but I refused the power of the Demon’s Head,” Oliver said. “I passed it on first to an unworthy successor who I then took it from again, and then to your sister, and she disbanded the League to be forever rid of your father’s chains. I am not meant to be Ra’s al Ghul, Talia. There was a time that I did think that that was where my path would lead. But my destiny lies along a different path, now.”

Talia studied the flames. “I found you and crafted you to be the perfect successor of my father, so that I could have the satisfaction in knowing it was _I_ who trained the next Ra’s al Ghul if I could become it myself,” Talia said softly. “You’ll forgive me if I have a hard time coming to terms with the fact that I wasted my time.”

“You didn’t waste your time, Talia,” Oliver said. “I may not become Ra’s, but I am leading a League, one that will serve the world in the light of day as you and your father serve it in the shadows. I couldn’t have become the man that I am today without your teachings. Without you, I would still be wandering the world aimlessly, getting involved in whatever mess I came across, instead of bringing down the likes of Malcolm Merlyn. You trained me to be a warrior and a leader, and I am. You didn’t fail as a teacher, Talia.”

“Thank you, Oliver,” Talia said, turning to look at him. “And what will you do about the Council of Time Masters and the threat they pose?”

“Find a way to stop their plans,” Oliver said. “Though how, I don’t know.”

“Be wary, Oliver,” Talia said. “When I was but a girl, I met the agent of the Council known as Chronos. He was merciless and without pity. I never saw him again after Sara Lance and her allies took him from Nanda Parbat, until he and his master arrived in my quarters.”

“I will be,” Oliver said. Any further discussion between master and student was halted as the door opened.

“Hey, Ollie, traffic was insane, but I managed to pick up some Thai…” Laurel trailed off as she found her boyfriend standing in front of the fireplace with a woman she didn’t recognize. “Who are you?” Laurel asked curiously, not a hint of jealousy in her tone. She knew Oliver was devoted to her, as she was to him, and that he wouldn’t hurt her like _that_ again.

“Laurel, this is Talia al Ghul, my teacher,” Oliver said. “She came with a warning. Talia, I believe you know Laurel from what I said about her during our training.”

“Indeed,” Talia said. “It is nice to finally put a living, breathing person to the name, Miss Lance. You are to be commended for giving Oliver something to live for. The thought of getting back to you and being there for you is what pushed him to become the man he is now.”

“Thank you, but I’m sure Ollie would’ve become the man he is today even without me being a ‘guiding light’ or whatever,” Laurel said softly. “Al Ghul? Any relation to Ra’s?”

“Yes,” Talia said shortly before she turned to Oliver. “You should tell her the entire truth, Oliver. She handles surprise well. And she is your Beloved. She, above all others, deserves your full and complete trust.” Talia turned and walked passed Laurel and out of the apartment, leaving a questioning Laurel looking at a grimacing Oliver.

“Ollie? What did she mean by that?” Laurel asked, feeling hurt at the implication that this Talia had known something about the man that she loved that she didn’t.

“Come sit down,” Oliver said quietly, gesturing to the couch. Laurel set the bags of Thai food on the counter before coming to sit on the couch, curling one leg beneath her as she sat beside Oliver and turned to face him. Oliver smiled at her, and it was a smile so full of love and compassion it took Laurel’s breath away. “Before I begin, I want you to know this has never had anything to do with whether I trust you. You are the other half of my soul, the person that gives me a reason to keep going and to have hope in a better tomorrow. I trust and love you above all others, Dinah Laurel Lance. The only two people who know this are Talia and Superman, and both only know the most basics. I will tell you everything you want to know. Do you believe me?”

“I believe you, Ollie,” Laurel said.

“Novu didn’t give me a vision of the future,” Oliver said quietly. “He gave me a second chance at life.”

“What do you mean by that?” Laurel asked quietly.

“Seven years from now, I died of wounds received in battle against the greatest evil I have ever known, the Anti-Monitor,” Oliver replied. “He is the exact opposite of Novu, wishing to destroy the universe and create a universe of his own. I had sworn myself to Novu’s service over a year ago from my perspective and done all I could to prepare for the Crisis that was coming, the Crisis that the Anti-Monitor would bring on th world. I gave my life so that over a billion people could live. It was a noble death, I thought. I passed on to what I was sure was the next great adventure, fully expecting to be reunited with you, and my mother, and everyone else I loved who had died before me. Instead, I found myself waking up in the hospital on the night I returned to Starling. When I went to splash water on my face, determined to figure out if this was a dream, the Monitor came to me and told me that he had decided to reward me for the service I rendered him in the lead up to and during the Crisis.”

“You died?” Laurel’s voice cracked, eyes welling with tears. “You-You’re _going_ to die in seven years?”

“No, no, not anymore,” Oliver said, taking her hand in both of his and squeezing it, smiling at her with tears bright in his own eyes. “Remember what the Monitor told me after I killed Thawne. My destiny is my own now; that fate, to die in my thirties, is no longer mine. I have a full life ahead of me, and I plan to spend every moment of it with you that I can, Laurel. I want us to grow old together in this city that we both love.” Oliver raised her hand up to his lips and he kissed her knuckles gently. “Everything I have done, killing Thawne, killing Malcolm, inspiring Superman, founding the Justice League… none of it happened last time.”

Laurel took a deep, calming breath. “Alright, so, Novu gave you a second chance at life, and you’ve been making the most of it,” she said. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t think you’d believe me,” Oliver admitted, “and I didn’t want the woman I love to call me crazy. Enough people have called me insane in both the last timeline and this one. I could take it from almost all of them. But not you. Not the woman that I love with all of my soul.”

Laurel blinked back tears at the thought that Oliver had been hiding this from her because he didn’t want to risk her not believing him. She placed her hand over his rough one, rubbing her thumb gently over the top of it. “I can’t say I would have understood it before Superman,” she admitted softly, “but you’ve proven time and again that you have an almost supernatural sense of what’s happening in the city, and the fact you are so deeply committed to Starling despite being away from it for five years would’ve made me at least consider the possibility that it was true. But I’m glad you waited to tell me, even if your teacher is the one who forced the issue.” Laurel leaned forward and kissed Oliver on the lips, swift but soft, pouring as much of her love into the kiss as she could before pulling away. “Just as I will never doubt the love you have for me, I hope you will never doubt the love I have for you, Oliver Queen.”

“Never,” Oliver said, bringing her hand up to his lips again and kissing the knuckles.

“Does this mean if I ask a question about your nightmares that you’ll answer?” Laurel asked.

“Yes, but maybe we should eat first,” Oliver said. “We don’t want the Thai food getting cold.” Laurel smiled ruefully and the two got up, heading to the counter and divvying up the dishes between them. They at in companionable silence, as they often did when it was just the two of them (Thea often ate before either of them and was in her bedroom by the time Laurel would arrive with dinner for she and Oliver), and eventually settled back on the couch. “So,” Oliver said, bracing himself, “what do you want to know?”

“You scream my name a lot in your dreams, Ollie,” Laurel said softly. “What happened. Tell me all of it.”

“By the time this happened, you’d joined me in being a vigilante, inspired by Sara,” Oliver said, deciding to leave off Sara’s death for the time being. “Black Canary, we called you.” Laurel smiled softly at the thought of the canary that her father had gotten Sara when Laurel had been twelve. “We had previously captured a man named Damien Darhk. He is the leader of H.I.V.E. and a contemporary of Ra’s al Ghul. He was actually considered to be the next Ra’s along with the current one, and the current Ra’s had a moment of weakness and spared his friend. Darhk took advantage of it and fled, stealing something very valuable from the League and leaving to forge his own organization, one that wouldn’t abstain from using modern conveniences.

“You, me, Thea, and John Diggle were the field members of the team. You had received an offer to become the District Attorney but decided to go out one last time as Black Canary before making the decision. Darhk attempted to escape from prison, and we went to stop him. Darhk had an idol that granted him an overpowering form of magic that rendered us essentially immobile whenever he used it. He got the idol back, activated it while we were fighting thugs he had hired while inside, and held us all immobile. He turned his attention on you.” Oliver swallowed as he remembered Laurel as she had been then. “You knew what was coming. You knew Darhk wanted to hurt your father for betraying him. But you stared him down without flinching, Laurel. You were every inch the hero that I aspire to be in that moment.

“Darhk’s control over me slipped and I took advantage, firing an arrow. He caught it and restored his hold on me before turning back to you. He stabbed you with _my arrow_ , Laurel, twisted it up inside you. I watched blood bubble up passed your lips as he carved up your lung inside. I held you in my arms the entire way to the hospital. The doctor told us you’d be fine. You made me swear that if something ever did happen to you out there that I would make sure you weren’t the last Canary, so a part of you would always be with me. You confessed to me that I was the love of your life before this. And then-then you started seizing. I could only stand by and _watch_ as the woman I loved convulsed and died barely four days before she turned 31. All I could think of was how unfair this was, how you didn’t deserve this… how it was _my fault_.”

Laurel had listened to all of this, filing away things she wanted to ask questions about (like her father apparently betraying this Damien Darhk). “You said this guy had magic and he used it to make us immobile?” Oliver nodded. “And that I chose to go into the field one last time before making the decision to be the D.A.?” Another nod. “Ollie, I can tell you this without ever experiencing that. It wasn’t your fault.”

“It was my arrow, my hubris,” Oliver said. “I should’ve made sure you were ready.”

“I don’t see how all the training in the world could have prepared me for being held immobile by _magic_ ,” Laurel said, scooting closer and cupping Oliver’s head in her hands, forcing him to look in her green eyes, his own blue eyes watery. “You tried to _take him out_ , Ollie. You didn’t _hand_ him that arrow and tell him to have at me, did you?”

“Of course not!” Olive said, horrified.

“So, to recap, I chose to go into the field knowing I could face an overwhelming force in his magic, he used magic to hold us immobile, and then he snagged your arrow out of the air? Where did you aim the arrow, Ollie?”

“His head,” Oliver said without hesitation. “He was threatening you.”

“Then you did _everything_ in your power to save me,” Laurel said. “It’s not your fault.”

“Yes, it is,” Oliver whispered, and then he pulled up his sweater, revealing his scarred torso. He fingered Chinese lettering on his torso. “This is protection against dark magic, powered by hope and love,” Oliver said. “If I had remembered it, I could have used it to break free of Darhk’s hold, and then it’d have been a contest of our League training. You died because I failed to remember that I had a protection against dark magic.”

“How many times have you used that protection, Ollie?” Laurel asked.

“Once before we were fighting Darhk,” Oliver said.

“And how often were you fighting for your life against normal bad guys?” Laurel asked.

“Almost every day of those five years, whether it was training or survival,” Oliver said, wondering where Laurel was going with this.

“Then it’s not surprising you didn’t think of that protection,” Laurel said. “How long did it take you to remember it?”

“A few weeks,” Oliver admitted.

“Ollie,” Laurel said, taking his face in her hands again. “You were not at fault. Damien Darhk was. So is Ra’s al Ghul, for not killing him when he had his chance. What happened to Darhk?”

“I killed him,” Oliver said. “I gave him the exact same fate he gave to you. I drove an arrow into his chest and carved up his lung, and I watched the light leave his eyes. He took my heart, the other half of my soul, the reason I had to keep hope burning alive in me. The least I was going to do was take his life.”

Laurel was silent. “This is what you meant, all those times that you said you were afraid of becoming Merlyn if you lost me,” she said quietly. “You stopped giving people second chances, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” Oliver whispered. “Some people were just not worth killing but… I didn’t care about whether they walked away with broken bones or anything else. I was broken, Laurel, and my enemies that came after took advantage of that.”

“Well, I’m here now, and I’m not going _anywhere,_ ” Laurel said firmly, leaning forward and kissing Oliver again. He returned the kiss, doing much the same as she had and pouring all of his love into it, leaving the two of them breathless for a moment. “I know you still think this was your fault, and I’m going to keep reminding you that I made the choice to go,” Laurel said quietly. “But in the meantime, I have another question.” **_*2*_**

“Ask,” Oliver said simply.

“Who’s Mia?” Laurel asked softly. “The way you say her name… it’s different than how you say min. Who was she to you?”

Oliver swallowed. “She was my daughter, my daughter who will never exist in this timeline,” he said quietly.

“Because you’re with me and not her mother?” Laurel asked.

“It was that way at the beginning, but there was always the chance that, somehow, she would be conceived anyways,” Oliver replied. “But that changed when her mother was murdered by the Huntsman.”

Laurel’s eyes widened. “You mean to tell me that that Felicity woman you told me the Huntsman killed was your child’s mother?” she asked.

“She was a little more than that,” Oliver said quietly. “Remember how I told you that I convinced you and everyone else, including myself, that I was in love with someone else?” Laurel nodded, already seeing where this was going. “Felicity was the woman I talked about. I chose her because I could ignore her when I thought I was right, something that I can never do with you because you don’t let things go until you’ve had your say.” Oliver’s lips twitched even as Laurel grinned smugly. “Felicity and I had a very rocky relationship and eventual marriage. We eventually settled on ignoring everything we didn’t like about each other, especially once William was involved and then when Felicity found out she was pregnant. We wanted to give William and Mia a stable home.”

“That sounds familiar,” Laurel said, thinking of the way her own parents (who were truthfully complete opposites in every possible way) had made sure that she and Sara had a stable home life. “So, you had a daughter with Felicity?”

“I did,” Oliver said. “What I didn’t know was that she made a deal with Novu, as well, and the day I came to protect you from China White, Felicity showed up at my door. Novu had done for her what he had done for me. I won’t lie; we kissed briefly, but I refocused on what I was going to do, and Felicity and I didn’t speak again until the next afternoon, by which point I had already made the realization that I was still in love with you, and that it wouldn’t be fair to Felicity to let her think there could be something between us. She had a problem accepting it but I thought she had gotten over it when she came to work for me on my team.”

“I get the feeling that that wasn’t the case,” Laurel said quietly. “What happened, Ollie?”

“We’d just found the _Queen’s Gambit_ and Walter and I were told not to let Mom skip town,” Oliver said. “I went to the Bunker to avoid telling Mom anything that could spook her and to get a head start on figuring out what Felicity had uncovered that she had been working on. I had a master override code allowing me access to every file on the computer. I found files hidden on the computer, files I could barely believe, and it’s made me think that I never knew Felicity at all, and that I sure as hell shouldn’t have married her.”

“What did you find?” Laurel asked.

“She-She was planning to kill you, Laurel,” Oliver whispered, and Laurel rocked back, whitening in shock. Some woman she hadn’t even known existed until Oliver told her about the fact the woman had been working for him had been planning to _murder_ her? “She had the blueprints to your building, C.N.R.I., the courthouse, even the blueprints of your car. Half-baked plans on hacking into your car and making it look like an accident, draining a bad guy’s accounts and using the money to hire mercs to kill you somewhere else… Laurel, I swear to God, I had _no idea_ that she was so deranged. If I had, I’d have made sure she was locked away in Sherwood Acres or something. I promise you, I had no idea what she was planning.”

“I believe you, Ollie,” Laurel said, placing one hand alongside his cheek, smiling slightly as he leaned into her touch, closing his eyes. “I know you wouldn’t have purposely brought someone into your life who planned to murder me. But I feel bad for her, nonetheless. She must’ve devoted so much of her life to getting back to you, and she didn’t deserve the Huntsman as her final reward, no matter what she was planning.” **_*3*_**

“There’s the woman I love,” Oliver said with a soft, sad smile. “Tell her someone was planning to murder her, and she finds reason to sympathize with them. Never change, Laurel. Never lose that heart of yours. It’s what makes you the person that I love.”

“So, Mia was your baby daughter?” Laurel asked.

“She was, but I also got to meet her as an adult thanks to Novu,” Oliver said. “He brought her, William, and Dig’s adopted son Connor to the past. I got to work with her, train with her, bond with her. So, knowing I erased her from history by choosing you over Felicity… it hit me hard. I kind of went on a bender.”

“I’m sorry, Ollie,” Laurel said. “I can’t imagine what you’re going through. I hope it doesn’t say anything bad that I’m glad you chose me.”

“No, it doesn’t say anything bad,” Oliver replied. “There is nothing I wouldn’t do for you. As I keep saying… You, Dinah Laurel Lance, are the love of my life and the other half of my soul. We’re in this together, whatever comes our way.” The two leaned in and kissed again.

“What was it Talia wanted, anyways?” Laurel asked.

“There’s a new threat to the Glades, but until I can find out where it’s coming from, there’s not much I can do,” Oliver said. “I’ll have to head to the Quiver later, get to work on tracking down any signs of it. But right now, I just want to be with you.” He leaned back on the couch, pulling her closer to him. She leaned her head against his chest, and his hand came up and swept through her hair, holding the side of her head. He kissed the top of her head, and she smiled, curling into his side. This was perfection, Laurel thought. This was what she had wanted. To be curled up in front of the fire with the man that she loved. **_*4*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* Initially, my plan *was* for Talia to have accepted the contract. But when it came right down to it, I decided Talia wouldn’t betray Oliver like that when she has no reason to.
> 
> *2* I’ll be honest: writing Laurel trying to convince Oliver that her death wasn’t his fault had my eyes watering because it is just so Laurel to not want Ollie to blame himself for her choices.
> 
> *3* Regardless of the personal impact, I think Laurel would feel some degree of sympathy for Felicity since, in this timeline, she’s never had the pleasure of meeting the woman and therefore doesn’t really know about Felicity’s selfish tendencies. Even then, Laurel might’ve expressed some sympathy, because that is who she is.
> 
> *4* This is a reference to Laurel’s desires as expressed in Chapter 5 of “The Rise of the Emerald Archer”, titled “Green Arrow”, in which Laurel mentally expresses a desire to have a life for herself with a man that she loved and children they both adore but unsure how to grasp that future she wants and make it into a reality.


	10. The Calm

Oliver Queen was still smiling, feeling lighter than ever after telling Laurel all that he had, when he entered the Quiver later that evening. He had decided to give Henry the night off; the man deserved some time to do things on his own, especially now that he was a free man. Oliver exited the elevator into the Quiver and slowed as he found that the Quiver wasn’t entirely empty, and the other occupant of his base of operations wasn’t Henry, Roy, or even Sara or Thea. Instead, it was a thin man with light brown hair and wearing a trenchcoat, who was leaning against the railing leading up to the central computer station. “Ah, good, you’ve finally arrived,” the man said, his British accent rather pronounced.

“Who are you and how did you know about this place? And how did you get in?” Oliver asked, trying to figure out how to get to the nearest weapon.

“My name is Rip Hunter, Mr. Queen, and I know about this place because in the time that I am from, 2166, this place is quite well-known and is even part of a guided tour along with your loft and the Queen Mansion showcasing the life that you have lived. And I bypassed your biometric security measures with _this_.” Rip held up a small device with an opaque blue center. “It allows me to mimic approved DNA scans. In this case, yours.”

Oliver relaxed, but only marginally, because he remembered the name Rip Hunter from not only when Ray had told him about the meeting that led to the formation of the Legends, but also some of the things Sara had told him whenever she was in the same time as him on a break from her work as time’s custodian. Rip Hunter was a manipulative and arrogant bastard, according to Sara, but in the end he was a good man who had given his life to give the Legends a chance at stopping a time demon named Mallus (though Oliver was certain Sara had been pulling his leg when she told him she and the Legends transformed into a giant Beebo doll and killed the demon by hugging him to death). “What brings you to me, Mr. Hunter?” Oliver asked. **_*1*_**

“As I’ve said, I come from the year 2166, and in that time, the truth of your astonishing experience, of being sent back in time by Mar-Novu to prepare the heroes of our world for the Crisis on Infinite Earths, is well-known,” Rip said. “Unfortunately, there are those who are opposed to the changes that you have wrought on the timeline, and though they cannot move openly against you, they seek to restore the status quo that existed before.”

“You mean your employers, the Council of Time Masters,” Oliver said.

“How did you-” Rip began.

“They approached my teacher with the contract on the 502 people who were supposed to die in the Undertaking,” Oliver said. “She refused and, in turn, approached me with the information. I hope you didn’t come by just to tell me things I already know, Mr. Hunter.”

“I don’t believe so, no,” Rip replied. “I can tell you precisely who has been contracted to kill those people, and I can provide you with the means of knowing _who_ is in danger, including the where and when so that you can intervene.” He pulled a device from his trenchcoat. “This is essentially a record of all those who were intended to die and will keep track of their timelines. When something happens, it will flash red and the relevant files will be brought to the forefront. I suppose you could call it an Encyclopedia of Foresight.” Rip set the device down on the nearby table.

“Perhaps you can explain to me exactly why the Council is _doing_ this,” Oliver said.

“I’m sure you’ve heard of the old axiom that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” Rip said. It wasn’t a question, but Oliver nodded, nonetheless. “I’m afraid this is certainly true of the Council. For many years now, they have controlled the fate of the world through means of a device known as the Oculus. It allows them to perceive all alternate timelines and manipulate events to what they decide is the most favorable outcome. In an effort to save humanity from an invasion by a race called the Thanagarians in 2266, they had put all of their efforts towards ensuring one man became their champion, an immortal tyrant who, with their silent aid, would go on to do what no other tyrant in history has: conquer the entire world.”

“Vandal Savage,” Oliver said quietly.

“The very same,” Rip said with a nod. “But when you saved the lives of those 502 people, you changed history, Mr. Queen. People who had never existed before suddenly did, and those people went on to have full lives, many of them leading to scientific and socio-political advancements that rendered Savage and the plans of the Council obsolete. But the Council… the Council guards it’s ability to manipulate people and events jealously, Mr. Queen. They feel that having everything they worked towards altered and made obsolete somehow diminishes their work. They want their plans moved back into place, Mr. Queen, and that means they feel the need to end the lives of all those that you saved.”

“Who have they contracted to kill these people, Mr. Hunter?” Oliver asked. “Talia thought that they might contract H.I.V.E.”

“H.I.V.E. was considered, but in the end, they’ve chosen to contract the Ninth Circle,” Rip replied, and Oliver felt his blood chill in his veins. “I know of your personal connections with the Ninth Circle, Mr. Queen, and I am truly sorry that you have been put into this position.” **_*2*_**

“While I appreciate all the aid you’re offering me, Mr. Hunter, I know from my experiences in the original timeline, specifically what Sara Lance told me about you, that you often have an ulterior motive for everything that you do,” Oliver said. “So, tell me, what is it that Savage does to you that makes you want to stop him from ever gaining power?”

Rip stared at Oliver for a moment before sagging. “He murders my wife and son,” Rip said quietly. “I am certain that, of all people, you can understand my desires to protect my family, Mr. Queen. As a Time Master, I should not have such connections, but I believe that having those connections is what keeps me grounded in humanity, what makes it impossible for me to stand by and watch as a ruthless tyrant like Savage conquers the world all on the whims of my own employers, who see nothing wrong with the millions slaughtered at Savage’s command so that he can presumably save what’s left of humanity in 2266.”

“In the original timeline, you formed a team to travel through time and stop Savage’s rise to power,” Oliver said. “Have you considered that course of action in this timeline?”

“I hadn’t, actually,” Rip said. “The idea of leading a team… it isn’t one I ever considered. A Time Master typically works alone. But who would I recruit?”

“Sara Lance, for one, and not just because of what I said earlier,” Oliver said. “When Talia came to see me tonight, she mentioned meeting Sara and a man called Chronos when she was a little girl.”

“Chronos?” Rip repeated numbly. “You’re certain of this?”

“I am,” Oliver confirmed. “Who is he?”

“A temporal bounty hunter, a ruthless sadist who kills those who are not integral to the timeline without hesitation,” Rip replied. “Even I don’t know who he is beneath the mask. He works exclusively for the Council and he always, _always_ accomplishes his objective.”

“Sounds uncomfortably like a time-traveling version of Slade Wilson,” Oliver said softly.

“That is an apt comparison, Mr. Queen,” Rip replied. “If Chronos will indeed be involved in this, then I _will_ need a team to give me an edge. You said Sara Lance is confirmed as one of them by Talia al Ghul?” Oliver nodded. “Any further suggestions?”

“Barry Allen,” Oliver replied. “He and Sara both need to learn the perils of changing the timeline. God knows I wish I had had someone to show me the ropes when I found myself back in time.”

“Barry Allen is integral to the timeline because he becomes The Flash,” Rip said carefully.

“Which is what you need, Mr. Hunter,” Oliver said. “You need people who are integral to the timeline so Chronos can’t kill them without upsetting his masters. You also need Carter Hall and Kendra Saunders. According to what Sara told me in the original timeline, those two are the only ones who can kill Savage, and then only with a weapon forged from materials that were impacted by the same phenomena that gave Savage his immortality and the Hawks their ability to reincarnate.”

“I will think on this carefully, Mr. Queen,” Rip said. “But I daresay that this mission would be more palatable to those that I assemble if they received the pitch from a recognized hero such as yourself.”

“Get me the date, time, and location, and I’ll sell it to them,” Oliver said. “Is there anything else I need to know, Mr. Hunter?”

“Just how to operate the Encyclopedia,” Rip said, gesturing Oliver forward. “I’ll show you how it works and then I’ll see what I can do about recruiting a team.” Oliver moved forward and paid close attention to everything Rip showed him regarding the Encyclopedia of Foresight, as Rip had named it.

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver returned to the loft near dawn and moved out onto the balcony, looking out at the waking city. Rip had shown Oliver how to work the Encyclopedia and then departed.

So, the Ninth Circle was in play already. This was unexpected and, Oliver knew, it could bring the battle for Emiko’s soul to the forefront. Had he done enough to show that he loved her regardless of her choices and that she didn’t need to do anything to earn his love and filial connection, or did he need to do more to win the battle between he and Dante? Oliver was sure, based on his experiences with Emiko in the future, that he _had_ done enough. He had given Emiko everything that she could ever have wanted, and he had done so without strings, and it would remain that way. If she questioned him on whether he had done what he had done for her in an effort to twist her away from the Ninth Circle, he would tell her it hadn’t been, because that was the truth. Oliver had done what he had done out of love for the sister he hadn’t truly gotten to know in the last timeline, and their interactions in this new one over the past month since his pardon and return to Queen Consolidated had proven to him that for all her service to the Ninth Circle, all Emiko had ever really wanted was to belong to her family and be accepted by them. She had sought a family that would accept her in the Ninth Circle and done as they asked because it was required.

But Oliver had required nothing from her for her to be recognized as his family, as his successor as C.E.O. should anything happen, and Oliver was certain that that would be the lynchpin when, not if but _when_ , it came time for Emiko to decide between he and Dante. The only factor that might make it a wild card was Kazumi Adachi. Dante could easily threaten Kazumi in order to keep Emiko with him, or could even use Ninth Circle resources to frame Oliver for Kazumi’s murder the way they had done so with Cayden James’ son through their puppet, Ricardo Diaz. Oliver could only hope that if that were to happen that it would make no sense for Oliver to do so and recognize that someone was framing him.

Oliver stifled a yawn. He had gone on a patrol and then come back and worked on navigating the Encyclopedia, learning all that he could about those now under threat from the Ninth Circle. His stomach had churned when he realized how many _children_ were under threat, and he had spent the evening creating a program to track those children at all hours out of sheer paranoia, tying it to his phone. As Felicity had once said to him after deciding to leave the team following the incident with Cupid, he didn’t actually _need_ someone like her or Henry. It just made things easier.

His lips twitched as he remembered how he had claimed the contrary when Malcolm had questioned his prowess with computer programming when the rest of the team had been taken and he was trying to track Simon (he had started calling him by his real name after learning there was a lawyer named Adrian Chase working at C.N.R.I. who was swiftly becoming Laurel’s right-hand man). Even though he had _somewhat_ trusted Merlyn due to his love for Thea, he hadn’t wanted the bastard knowing _all_ of his secrets in case they had ever come into conflict again and the man decided to take out Felicity to cripple Oliver. Considering Merlyn had founded the Thanatos Guild between Darhk’s defeat and his own death on Lian Yu, Oliver felt justified in having taken such precautions. **_*3*_**

_Facing the future with my grit and my bow, indeed,_ Oliver thought to himself, not for the first time, as the sun peeked over the horizon. _I won’t give up on you, Emiko. I promise._

**_*DC*_ **

Dinah Laurel Lance’s skin was already glistening with sweat as she worked out her frustrations from her most recent nightmare, this one inspired by what Oliver had told her about Darhk and Felicity Smoak, on the punching bag that was set up in her bedroom. Laurel’s nightmare had gone from the constant of the Huntsman detailing how he was going to cook her to a faceless man holding her still while driving an arrow through her to being locked in her car as it careened down the road at high speeds, ignoring all of her efforts to stop it, and heading for an oncoming semi. The dread she had felt in each of these scenarios had been so palpable that she felt it even now just _thinking_ of that. How many people had wanted to kill her in the short span of the two months Oliver had been taking on Merlyn? Apparently, it had been more than she thought. How many more were waiting in the wings for their chance to drive the proverbial dagger through her heart?

However many there were, she needed to be ready for them, which is why she had rolled out of bed after the third successive nightmare and gotten into her exercise clothes, determined to excise her demons through physical exertion if nothing else. Laurel continued to punch the bag, picturing the Huntsman, the mysterious Darhk, and even the woman she had never met but who had been planning to murder her to have Oliver all to herself. She barely heard the door to her bedroom creak open. “Hey,” Sara said quietly, coming up behind her and putting a hand on her shoulder. “What’s going on? You’ve been on edge since you came home from Ollie’s last night.”

“Ollie told me some things, is all,” Laurel said. “Things about the future and-and other things. It gave me some more nightmares than usual. But I’m fine, Sara.”

“No, you’re not,” Sara said, pulled a protesting Laurel towards the bed, where they sat on the edge of it. “Laurel, you’re my sister. I love you, and it hurts, watching you run yourself ragged the way you have been. Now tell me, what’s going on? What did Ollie tell you?”

“I-I can’t say,” Laurel said. “It’s not my secret to tell.”

“Whatever it is, it’s causing more harm than good,” Sara said in her typical blunt fashion. “Give me vague details.”

“Alright,” Laurel said. “Ollie told me about a couple of other threats to my life I wasn’t even aware of. He told me about how I died in the future, and about a threat to my life that I didn’t even know about.”

Sara’s stomach churned at the calm way her sister spoke, her mind zeroing in on the words _how I died in the future._ “What do you mean, ‘how you die in the future’, Laurel?” Sara asked quietly.

Laurel stiffened. “I thought I told you about that,” she said.

“No, I would remember being told my sister dies in the future,” Sara said. “And how does Oliver even know?”

“The same way he knew about Merlyn,” Laurel said. “Look, I can’t tell you what’s going on, Sara. It’s not my secret to tell. I just- I needed to do _something_ productive to deal with the nightmares and learning how to fight so that I’m never helpless is the only thing I can think of.”

“Laurel, please, tell me what happens,” Sara begged. “If only to get it out there. And who was going to kill you that you didn’t know about?”

Laurel worried her lower lip for a moment. But she _did_ need to talk to someone. “According to Ollie, Damien Darhk killed me in the future,” Laurel said.

“Damien Darhk?” Sara whispered in shock. The leader of H.I.V.E. would kill her sister? How? Why?

“Yeah,” Laurel said. “What makes me angry is, based on what Ollie said, it wasn’t even because I’d made a nuisance of myself and ‘deserved’ it in his eyes. It was just to punish Dad and Ollie. How is that fair, Sara? How is it fair that if I’m to die, it’s to be as a message to other men instead of it being because I made a nuisance of myself? Ollie says that this isn’t gonna happen anymore, that too much has changed. But I still wonder if I’m still going to die young, Sara.” She looked at her younger sister and finally admitted a truth that she had been afraid to admit ever since Oliver told her that she had been killed, back when she had thought it was only a vision. “I’m scared, Sara. I have so much I want to do. I-I don’t want to die. Not like that. So, I train, and I train, and I _train_ , because I’m not going to die like that. I refuse to be a _message_.”

“You won’t be,” Sara said wetly, her blue eyes brimming with tears, the same as Laurel’s green ones were. “You’re not gonna die young, Laurel. I’m not gonna let it happen, neither is Ollie. But you’re not going to be any good to anyone if you run yourself ragged. You need to pace yourself, you need to let yourself rest.”

“But I _can’t_ ,” Laurel said, her voice cracking. “Every time I close my eyes, I see the Huntsman, and now I’m going to be seeing Darhk, faceless as he is, and the woman who decided to kill me to get to Ollie.”

“Who was that?” Sara asked swiftly.

“Felicity Smoak,” Laurel replied. “Ollie found out after the Huntsman killed her that she was planning to kill me. She had blueprints for my old apartment, C.N.R.I., the courthouse, my car… he found half-baked plans on his system where she had outlined the possibility of draining some random bad guy’s accounts and using the funds to hire mercs to kill me.” Laurel shivered, despite knowing nothing had come about, since someone _had_ hired mercenaries to abduct her from C.N.R.I.

“I know that it might be cruel to say this, but I’m glad she’s dead,” Sara said. “Spares me the trouble of finding her and killing her myself.”

“Sara, no one deserves what the Huntsman does, not even this Felicity,” Laurel admonished.

“I know,” Sara sighed. “But knowing someone threatened you… what, was she some obsessed fangirl who fell for Ollie hard?”

“Something like that,” Laurel said, knowing she couldn’t tell Sara the truth. That had to come from Ollie. “Look, a lot of this stuff, you’re gonna need the details from Ollie. It’s his story to tell, not mine.”

“Oh, I will,” Sara swore. “In the meantime, you are not going to be punching anything else today until training tonight. I won’t have you running yourself ragged morning and night when I’m not around. From now on, you train when I say.”

“But, Sara-” Laurel began to object.

“I’m serious, Laurel,” Sara interrupted. “You’re too important to me, to Ollie, to this city as C.N.R.I.’s director to drive yourself into a downward spiral out of fear. You have me, and Ollie, and so many other people who care about you and are looking out for you. You are _not_ gonna die young. You and Ollie are gonna live to a ripe old age and be cantankerous grandparents if I have anything to say about it.” Sara took her sister’s hands in her own. “I love you, Laurel. Ollie loves you Please, stop running yourself ragged out of fear. You have _nothing_ to be afraid of. The Huntsman is in prison awaiting trial. Felicity Smoak is dead. And Damien Darhk will _never_ get close to you.” Sara pulled her sister into a hug, a rarity since Sara wasn’t one to initiate contact after her years away, and Laurel melted into the embrace, closing her eyes as the tears that she had refused to shed finally fell. **_*4*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Clark Kent smiled as he watched his young cousin wolf down her pancakes, syrup sticking to the edges of her mouth. Kara was adjusting as well as could be expected, given how she had arrived and that, for her, the destruction of Krypton was barely a week ago. She had nightmares every night about the planet exploding around her, but somehow managed to shunt off her fear and her horror during the day and was naturally bubbly. In truth, Clark feared that Kara was suppressing her memories of what happened because there was no way to deal with them healthily. It wasn’t like they could trust any human therapist with their secrets. Most would probably think that aliens didn’t have the same rights as humans and giving anyone their human identities was a risk that Clark just didn’t want to take. So, Kara would only have himself and Lois for confidants, and he hoped that that would be enough.

Clark knew there was going to be challenges. Lois and he had gone from being a couple who were slowly moving towards a full commitment once the world had settled with Superman’s presence to essentially being parents for a thirteen-year-old girl who had just lost everything and almost everyone that she held dear. Whenever Clark was home, she clung to him and talked to him constantly. It was endearing, but it also worried Clark that his cousin wouldn’t be able to connect to humans around her because of her trauma. It didn’t help that she would have to keep her true nature a secret from all those around her, the way that he had. Unfortunately, neither he nor Lois had the time (nor the temperament) to stay home full-time and homeschool Kara, which meant that soon enough they would have to enroll her in school. Which, in and of itself, was going to be a challenge all it’s own because Kryptonian children learned what humans learned in college at the equivalent of grade school. Yet Kara would have to pretend not to know these things and that she needed this education, which would bore her, Clark knew.

There were also the Zoners, as Oliver had named them, to consider. So far, there had been no sign of them. Clark had gone over the full list of prisoners from the archives at the Fortress, and the sheer number of potential threats terrified him. He and Kalex had developed what he called the Phantom Zone projector, a device that would allow him to send a Zoner back into the Phantom Zone, in preparation for his battles with them because, as cruel and sadistic as these beings were, they didn’t deserve to be dissected by equally cruel and sadistic humans like Hank Henshaw. But out of all of the prisoners that had been housed in Fort Rozz, two in particular concerned Clark due to their connections to his family.

The first was the infamous General Dru-Zod, who had been tricked into a trap by Clark’s own biological father, Jor-El, when the former had attempted to overthrow the planetary government and seize power for himself, turn Krypton into a military dictatorship. Zod was ruthless, cunning, and unlike most of Kyrpton, was not xenophobic. He saw the _uses_ of the other species in the universe, and there was very chance he could galvanize them along with the rest of the Kryptonians that had been imprisoned in Fort Rozz, which numbered over 200. Most of them had been part of Zod’s own command, having followed their leader in his campaign.

Equally concerning was the imprisonment of Kara’s maternal aunt, General Astra Non-Zel, who had committed her own high crimes by attempting to deploy Myriad and control Krypton that way, all in an effort to save it from it’s own destruction, reverse the damage done to the planet’s core. It wasn’t a question of whether Astra would act against the people of Earth, even with the best of intentions, but rather whether she would do so alongside Zod or allow him to challenge the world and Superman only to fail while she plotted in the shadows.

Clark smiled as Kara turned to him with begging eyes, plate held out in hope. He forked a couple of more pancakes onto the plate without incident. His cousin certainly loved her food; thank God for Kryptonian metabolism because otherwise she might have to worry about body image issues. **_*5*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* Oh, Oliver, if only you knew how much Sara *wasn’t* pulling your leg… While I had my problems with S3, stuff like Beebo vs Mallus was what had people saying that Legends is the best Arrowverse show, and I fully admit to cheering on Beebo. Especially after the whole “Dua!” thing before the final combat began. I crack up *every single time* that I hear that.
> 
> *2* Once I decided I wasn’t going to have Talia take the contract after all, I knew I needed an enemy that would in some ways be deeply personal. I did consider Darhk and H.I.V.E. very heavily, but in the end, I decided that by using the Ninth Circle, I would bring the battle for Emiko’s soul (who will play a larger role in this story anyways) to the forefront. Sorry if anyone feels cheated since I’ve shown Darhk a few times and Dante only once.
> 
> *3* Okay, the showrunners and writers retcon their own stuff so much it’s not so much funny as sad. One of the most glaring examples is Felicity saying Oliver doesn’t need her in 4x16, but then them retconning this in 5x22 with Oliver saying he had ‘specific hardware’. Uh, yeah, no hardware is gonna ‘help’ you hack into bank accounts and such. Oliver *has* the skills he needs; its just helpful for him to have someone running the tech side of things and thus freeing up his time for more takedowns. That has always been my impression. So, I hope everyone likes *my* retcon of the stupid retcons of Guggenheim and Mericle.
> 
> *4* Writing this scene between Laurel and Sara, especially Laurel saying she doesn’t want to die young, had me tearing up.
> 
> *5* This is the calm before the storm for Clark and co. Soon enough the Fort Rozz prisoners will be popping up and making trouble in Metropolis.


	11. Warnings

Emiko Queen (she still found it hard to believe that she was finally being considered such) was conflicted. She had just heard from Dante, the man that had essentially replaced Robert in her life until she was an adult and had earned a business degree in Applied Sciences, that the Ninth Circle had been contracted to kill a number of people in Starling City. It would be long-term work, he said, and it was likely they would be attracting her brother’s attention at some point. He expected her to be ready when the time came, because aside from him, she was the only member of the Ninth Circle in Starling City with specialized training that could match Oliver’s, especially when you factored in the apparent enhancements that that armored suit of his contributed to his success rate.

The reason for the conflict was simple. She had turned to Dante out of anger and grief at the life lost to her when Moira Queen had forced the issue with her father and ensured he wasn’t a part of her life, and then only when he had expressed an interest in how she had stolen his watch. Dante had encouraged her in the ways her father should have during her formative years, and a part of her felt she owed him and the Ninth Circle for keeping her and her mother on their feet and off the streets since there weren’t enough homeless shelters in the city and priority was often given to the elderly. But that didn’t mean Emiko wasn’t aware of just what kind of things the Ninth Circle got up to. She had been lucky that she had been mostly aimed at rivals of the Ninth Circle, people who were just as twisted as Dante was. She had always worried what would happen if she was ever asked to kill an innocent. And now… now that day had arrived. She knew Dante would wish to test her loyalty, and perhaps at any other time she would have eventually capitulated and done as he asked.

But this wasn’t any other time. She had been given everything that she had ever wanted by her brother, and it had been done with _no_ strings attached. He had recognized her as his sister, brought her into the fold at Queen Consolidated, even made her heir apparent should anything happen to him as Green Arrow over the sister he had known his whole life. While she acknowledged his points about Thea being unacceptable to the Board due to not being a real Queen, it still felt _wonderful_ for Oliver to recognize her the way he had, without any special requirements on her loyalty or her willingness. Even with the incident regarding Cisco Ramon, he had taken the burden off of her and not held her accountable for ignoring one of his personal hires, just as he hadn’t required her to give special treatment to his other hires such as Barry Allen. Oliver _respected_ her as a person and as a businesswoman, and he treated her like she was already his partner instead of like a subordinate, which was how Dante treated her even while pretending to love her like a daughter. Even Robert had treated her as an inferior to his son and heir, only for that son and heir to turn around and treat her like an equal, like her thoughts and feelings and opinions _mattered_.

But whatever happened, whatever she chose, she would be betraying someone, and she was afraid of that. If she betrayed Oliver, she would be losing the trust and love of the brother who had given her everything that she ever wanted. But if she betrayed Dante, she could be risking not only her life, but that of her mother. Emiko worried her lower lip; Oliver had sent his son and the boy’s mother into hiding. Would he be able or willing to do the same for her mother if she chose to stand against Dante? Or arrange some other method of protecting her mother? Emiko knew if she betrayed Dante that she wouldn’t be able to stay on the sidelines, either. She would have to turn the skills he had given her _against_ the Ninth Circle and stand with Oliver in his mission to protect the people of Starling City. Was she ready to make such a choice? Did it matter if she was ready, since she doubted it would be very long before Dante forced the issue?

“Emiko?” came her mother’s voice, and Emiko turned away from staring off into space to find her mother coming to sit beside her on the couch. “You’ve been acting odd ever since last night, when you came back from meeting your old mentor. What happened? Did he say something to upset you?” Kazumi was under the impression that Dante was a community mentor who had taken Emiko under his wing; Emiko had never been able to tell her mother the truth about what she had done, what she had become. “Emiko, please, tell me what’s wrong,” Kazumi said. “We can work it out together, as a family.”

“That’s just it, Mom,” Emiko said, feeling dread curdle in her stomach but knowing that if she were to send her mother into hiding like Oliver had sent his son that she would need to tell her mother the truth anyways. “This is about family.” She turned and took her mother’s hands in her own. “There are things I haven’t told you about me, about Dante, about how I kept a roof over our heads.”

“You can tell me anything, Emiko,” Kazumi said.

“Dante isn’t a community mentor,” Emiko said quietly. “He-He’s a leading member of an organization called the Ninth Circle. They’re worse than Merlyn’s Tempest, Mom. I-I’ve been a member for years, doing their bidding, to keep us afloat. I was so lost when Dad abandoned us, and Dante-Dante was _there_.”

“Oh, my dear,” Kazumi said, clenching Emiko’s hands tightly. “Do you think I wasn’t aware that there had to be something _off_ about the past fifteen years? I knew _something_ was going on. I was just waiting for you to _tell_ me.”

“You-You knew and didn’t say anything?” Emiko asked.

“I’m your _mother_ , dear,” Kazumi said. “I’m meant to be here for you whenever you need it. Now, what is Dante doing that has you in such a twist?”

“The Ninth Circle has been contracted to kill people in Starling City, and they don’t care about collateral damage,” Emiko said. “I-I know I need to tell Oliver, but I’m afraid of what he’ll do when he finds out.”

“Your brother is a good man, Emiko, and he will appreciate you being willing to come forward and tell him this,” Kazumi said. “But that doesn’t explain why you’re so afraid.”

“The Ninth Circle doesn’t take betrayal lightly, Mom,” Emiko said. “They-They could come after you to get revenge on me, and if I betray them, my life is forfeit anyways. To have any chance at surviving, I’ll have to help Oliver fight them.”

“You’re afraid that I’ll die,” Kazumi said quietly. Emiko nodded. “Emiko, doing the right thing is rarely easy, and sometimes it means terrible things may happen. But I can tell that despite everything, you remain the girl that I raised and that girl, that girl would do the right thing, no matter what. If something were to happen, I would die proud of my daughter.”

“I-I don’t want to lose you,” Emiko wept.

“And you will never lose me,” Kazumi said, placing a hand over Emiko’s heart. “I will always be in here. You will need only look to find me. Now, you have a busy day ahead of you. You and your brother have a lot to talk about. So, let’s start you off with a good breakfast.” **_*1*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver was looking out across Starling City from his office at Queen Consolidated when there was a timid knock on the glass door of his office. He turned to see Emiko standing on the other side of it, looking nervous. He waved her in, and she stepped in. Oliver’s archer’s eyes noted the way she was shaking, from nerves or fear, he didn’t know. “Come in, Emiko, and take a seat, you’re shaking like a leaf,” he said, guiding her to one of the seats in front of his desk.

“Have you scanned for bugs recently?” Emiko asked.

“Just this morning,” Oliver replied. “What’s going on, Emiko?”

“There’s something I need to tell you,” Emiko said miserably. “You’re going to hate me, Oliver.”

“I don’t know about that,” Oliver said, having a guess as to what this was about but deciding to let Emiko come clean in her own time. “Whatever’s going on, Emiko, we can face it together. As a family.”

“If you even consider me family after what I have to tell you,” Emiko said. She took a deep shuddering breath. “After Dad abandoned Mom and I, I was so lost. One day, I met a man called Dante who began to fill the role Dad did. Like Dad, he wanted me to do things to show how much I cared about it. It’s why I was so surprised with how you just offered all that you have with no thought of repayment. It wasn’t what I had come to expect. Oliver… Dante is a leading member of a secret society, the Ninth Circle. They’re worse than what you’ve faced, and they’re planning to kill people in Starling City. They won’t care about collateral damage.”

“Yeah, I know,” Oliver said, and Emiko jerked. “The people who contracted the Ninth Circle tried to contract my old teacher first, but she refused and then warned me. I was then contacted by someone who is aware of the contract and who was contracted in the end. The same person gave me the means to intervene when the Ninth Circle makes a move. But I realize how hard this must have been for you, to step forward and tell me all of this. And I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking I’m going to hate you. I’m not. You’re my sister, Emiko, and I love you. I want as much as my family as I can have, and the fact that you chose to tell me over keeping this quiet says much about the kind of woman you are, and that is someone I am proud to call sister.”

“Oliver, Dante won’t take my betraying him lightly,” Emiko said. “Is-Is there a way that you can get my mother into hiding, like you did William and his mother?”

“I can try,” Oliver promised. “What are your plans after your mother is safe?”

“I have a lot of skills that Dante trained me in, and I’m a great marksman with a bow,” Emiko said, a little shyly. “I can’t just sit on the sidelines, not when it’s the people I was working for who are planning to go after innocents. I-I was hoping you could use a partner.”

Oliver’s eyebrows shot up. He hadn’t been expecting that. “Emiko, I would be honored if you decided to fight alongside me,” he said quietly. “It would also be helpful to have another defender for Starling because there are going to be times I have to leave town for Justice League business, and Starling will need someone to defend it from the Ninth Circle. But are you really ready for this? I won’t ask you to do this unless you’re one hundred percent ready.”

“Dante won’t care if I’m ready or not, Oliver,” Emiko said.

“Alright,” Oliver said after a moment. “I assume you have gear you can use for now?”

“I do, but its gear from the Ninth Circle,” Emiko admitted with a grimace. The implication that the Ninth Circle knew its weaknesses was clear.

“Come on,” Oliver said quietly. “We need to talk to Cisco and Dr. Briggs. Together, I’m sure they can come up with something more permanent.” Oliver stood, and Emiko followed him. The two made the journey down to Applied Sciences in companionable silence, Emiko marveling at the depth of her brother’s capacity for forgiveness. But she hadn’t told him the worst of it yet, how she had let their father die when she could have stopped it, could have stopped Oliver from suffering the life he had endured for five years.

Oliver knocked on the door to the office that had been given to Dr. Briggs and Cisco before walking in. The two looked up, and Oliver was only mildly surprised to find Curtis Holt there, as well. “Dr. Briggs, Cisco, a word,” Oliver said.

“I hope it’s alright if Mr. Holt stays, I believe I’ll be recruiting him for Q-Core,” Briggs said. “He had a rather brilliant idea that he was running by us. Why don’t you hear him out before asking him to leave?”

“Alright,” Oliver said after a moment, leaning against a nearby desk. “What’s your idea, Curtis?”

“I was thinking about the night that you saved me and my husband, Mr. Queen,” Curtis replied excitably. “I noticed how you were having to take a moment to examine the situation every time you took down one of the bikers. I was thinking that if you had a mask that also had a heads-up display, or HUD that examined the positions you found yourself in, you would be that much quicker to adapt to the changing situation.”

Oliver reached up and rubbed his chin thoughtfully, ignoring the bristle of his beard. “Interesting,” he said. “How do you see that working, though?”

“Well, it would need to conform to your features, so we would need to make a face-cast to make sure it worked,” Curtis replied. “And it would probably be a little heavier than the domino mask you wear and would take some time to adjust. But it would be programmed with all the sorts of tactical programming that is available and might even require it’s own kind of processor to sort and collate the data. It’s not something that would be made overnight, Mr. Queen, but give it a few months and it could be ready.”

“Sounds good, Curtis,” Oliver said, “and it sounds like you would be a perfect fit for Q-Core with a mind like that. Emiko?”

“I agree,” Emiko said. “And I expect I’ll be diverting more funding to Q-Core considering why we’re here, so they can afford a new staff member.”

“Great,” Curtis enthused before coming up short. “Wait, what do you mean, why you’re here?”

“It turns out Emiko has a certain set of skills that would prove useful in my _other_ job,” Oliver said, and all three pairs of eyes widened. “But she currently only has gear that a group that has just popped up on my radar is intimately familiar with the weaknesses of. I was hoping that Cisco and Dr. Briggs could come up with something. As my team expands, I’ll be bringing each of them by so you can measure them and figure out what would work best. I _would_ prefer that their gear be as armored as the RQ-1141, but I understand if it doesn’t work out that way.”

“Well, step this way, Miss Queen, and we’ll get you sorted,” Dr. Briggs said.

“Do you have a color preference?” Cisco piped up. “Green like your brother, perhaps?”

“Black with red highlights,” Emiko said. “It’s what I’m used to, and it suits me.”

“Got it,” Cisco muttered distractedly as Emiko followed Dr. Briggs to a device to get measurements.

“In the meantime, Mr. Queen, I can at least get some preliminary work done on the new mask,” Curtis said. “Get the measurements of your nose, cheekbones, that sort of thing. It’ll give me a rough estimate of what to work with.”

“Alright,” Oliver said, and let Curtis lead him to another chair, near a ‘laser scanner’ that would take the measurements of Oliver’s head. **_*2*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Sara Lance knocked on the door in front of her. After the talk she had had with Laurel this morning, she needed answers, and there was only one man who could give them to her. Oliver opened the door in front of her, blinking in surprise. “Sara?” he asked. “What are you doing here?”

“I need answers, Ollie,” Sara said, stepping into his apartment without much fuss. “I woke up this morning to Laurel driving herself to exhaustion practicing punches and kicks on the punching bag she bought for herself, and she said it was because of what you told her last night. That in addition to nightmares about the Huntsman, she has nightmares about Damien Darhk and that Felicity woman the Huntsman killed both killing her. What the hell, Oliver?”

Oliver sighed. “Come on, let’s talk outside,” Oliver said, gesturing to the balcony. Sara nodded shortly, and the two friends made their way out onto the balcony. Oliver leaned against it, keeping an eye inside the apartment, presumably for Thea. “What exactly is it that you want to know?”

“How the hell do you know what’s going to happen to Laurel in the future, and why the hell was Felicity Smoak planning on killing my sister?” Sara asked in her typical blunt fashion.

Oliver sighed. “I forgot I haven’t really told you where I get all my information,” he said, rubbing his jaw as a light snow began to fall from the sky, the air this far up being remarkably chilly on it’s own. Neither of them were effected by the cold, trained as they were by the al Ghul sisters to ignore such things. “I guess I’ll tell you some of what I told Laurel last night after Talia stopped by.”

“Wait, Talia was here?” Sara asked. “What did she want?”

“Let’s focus on one group of questions at a time,” Oliver said. “A little over a year ago, I met a cosmic being called Mar-Novu, the closest thing to a god that I’ve ever met or seen. He was preparing the world’s heroes for a far worse threat, and in the course of proving ourselves, I traded my services to him in exchange for sparing the lives of two of my friends. He eventually came to call in that marker, and I worked with him against the greatest evil I have ever faced, only to die after being mauled by it’s soldiers. I died, Sara, I died with you and Barry standing beside me as I passed. And then I woke up the night I returned to Starling, and Novu told me that he had granted me a second chance at life.”

Sara was pale. “You died?” she asked quietly. “And you’ve been given a second chance?”

“One I’m not wasting at all,” Oliver said. “To answer your questions, I know what happened to Laurel in the future because I lived it. Now, I think I’ve changed things enough that that won’t happen, but I’m planning on taking measures to protect Laurel from Darhk and his magic just in case. And Felicity Smoak was given a second chance at life as well due to her own deal with Novu. In the future, after Laurel died, Felicity was my wife, and she spent twenty years waiting to be reunited with me. When it finally came, and I turned her away in favor of your sister, it apparently caused her to snap, and she was intent on getting back all she lost, even if it meant killing Laurel so that my affections would once again be hers and hers alone.”

“Anything else I should know?” Sara asked.

“Yes,” Oliver said, meeting Sara’s ice-blue eyes with his own aquamarines. “Slade Wilson is alive, Sara, and he’ll be coming at us by next October.”

“Oh, God, no,” Sara whispered. “How? How do we beat him?”

“I don’t know,” Oliver said honestly. “The last time around, we were able to find a cure, but the person who would’ve been able to create the cure refused my offer of employment, preferring to do her own research. And even then, it took six months before we got a chance to get a sample of the Mirakuru. We can’t be sure there would even be that because of how much I’ve changed things, Sara. But we have _more_ on our side this time, too. I’m a publicly-recognized hero, my word carries weight. I’m forming the Justice League, which didn’t exist the last time. Superman is _more_ than a match for Slade and we’re friendly with each other. And I’ve cut off both avenues Slade could’ve used, meaning he has to come up with a new attack plan. Between removing the methods that he had to attack and all the differences, we have a greater chance of beating Slade even _with_ the Mirakuru than we did the last time, Sara. Believe me, we do.” **_*3*_**

“Okay,” Sara said with a sigh. “I believe you. I know you wouldn’t lie to me, Ollie.” She leaned against the window of the apartment. “What did Talia want?”

“There’s a new threat to the Glades,” Oliver replied. “The Ninth Circle has been contracted by the Council of Time Masters to kill the 502 people who would have died in Merlyn’s half-successful Undertaking if I hadn’t of killed him and brought down Tempest.”

“The Ninth Circle? I’ve never heard of them,” Sara said honestly.

“They designed it that way,” Oliver said. “They work even deeper in the shadows than the League of Assassins, manipulating wars and events that will profit them in the long run. But they get only one chance at killing these people who they’ve been contracted to kill. Time won’t allow any more than one attempt. So, all we have to do is protect these people, stop the Ninth Circle from killing them, and they’re safe. I was given a device that will help us know who’s in danger.”

“Good,” Sara said. “But where did you get this device? How did you know? And what the hell is the Council of Time Masters?”

“I got the device from a Time Master with a conscience and some semblance of humanity, Talia told me the Council approached her but she refused, and the Council of Time Masters control the timeline and have controlled the lives and fates of humanity for years from what Rip Hunter told me,” Oliver rattled off.

“Okay, then,” Sara said. “So, what’s on the agenda for tonight?”

“Training for Laurel, Roy, and Thea, patrolling for me,” Oliver said. “And I’ll have to tell you all about my new partner. It’ll be a few days before she’s ready to begin working, and I need to get her a motorcycle of her own since I doubt that she wants to ride behind me.”

“New partner?” Sara echoed. 

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver stood waiting for Sara, Henry, Laurel, Roy, and Thea to turn their attention on him after he had called for it. The five lined up, all but Sara wondering what this was about. “I wanted to give you all a heads-up that there will be a new member of my team coming down in a few days to a week,” Oliver said. “She’ll be working with me in the field as a full partner, and I expect you to treat her with the same respect that you do me.” Oliver gave Thea, in particular, a hard look, which made the nearly-eighteen-year-old very suspicious.

“Who is it?” Thea asked stiffly.

“Emiko,” Oliver said, confirming Thea’s worst fears and causing her jealousy to spike tremendously.

“Emiko!” Thea exploded after a moment. “Emiko, Emiko, Emiko! Every time I turn around, there she is, even though I’ve never once met her! First you give her access to the family fortune! Then you make her head of Applied Sciences, working side-by-side with you! Then you make her a Queen! And now she’s going to be joining the team and going out with you without having to go through all the training you’re putting the rest of us through? What the _hell_ , Ollie!?”

“Emiko and her mother deserved that access because it’s what Robert wanted, and _Moira_ kept them from receiving what they were owed from Robert’s will,” Oliver said firmly, giving his youngest sister a cautionary look. “Emiko is fully-qualified to not only join the company due to her business background but also because she has a degree in Applied Sciences. Emiko has _every right_ to the Queen name, especially since it’s all she’s wanted since she was a child while _you_ , Thea, were about to throw away the Queen name and take Merlyn’s last name because that psychopath was twisting you up! And Emiko is fully-trained in combat, archery, and other skills, making her the perfect partner, especially since there’s a new threat to the city.”

Thea had wilted with each and every line from her brother until she was staring at her tennis shoes, a morose look on her face.

Oliver, for his part, had decided that since Thea was continuing to show a lack of maturity that he was going to take back giving Thea access to the family accounts again. He would tell her later tonight, so it didn’t become a big production and provide any further free entertainment for Roy (or headaches for Henry, Laurel, and Sara, especially the last one). “Alright, get back to training. I have a patrol.” **_*4*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> One thing I want to address is that while Emiko has quickly decided to align with her brother rather than Dante, it doesn’t mean the battle for her soul is over. She still believes in the methods she’s been taught (to take the kill shot) and she will struggle with becoming a hero. There’s also the fact that Dante knows deep, intimate details about her, including the things she’s done for the Ninth Circle, and he will use that against her. So, just because she’s aligned with Oliver doesn’t mean the battle for her soul is over.
> 
> Another thing I want to say is that things with Thea will come to a head in the next chapter since the other writers in the Lauriver Discord said at this point it's either make her a hero or take her down the villain's path.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* This is the first time I’ve written an extended scene from Emiko’s perspective. Now that she’ll be playing a larger role in the story, expect there to be more of these.
> 
> *2* And so Q-Core begins its work for Team Arrow. That’s the great thing about the boss being an outed hero. He can just mosey into Applied Sciences and get something made.
> 
> *3* It’s going to be *interesting* coming up with a way for Slade to challenge Oliver, considering all the bonuses Oliver has in his arsenal at the moment.
> 
> *4* Yeah, Thea still has some growing up to do. And for those wondering what this means for Oliver’s promise to flip the switch, he originally promised to keep Thea cut off until she grows up. Older promise supersedes newer one.


	12. Intervention

Oliver Queen was surprised when, instead of getting off of the elevator on her floor with Sara, Laurel stayed in the elevator with he and Thea. “Laurel?” he asked softly. She remained silent, watching the digital display count upwards until they arrived on the loft’s floor. The three of them exited the elevator, made their way to the loft, and entered. There was no cosmic being waiting for them this time, but each of the three was caught up in the nostalgia that the three of them entering the loft at the same time stirred up nonetheless. Then the moment was gone, and Thea started towards the stairs.

“Not so fast, Speedy,” Laurel said, snagging the girl’s arm. “The three of us are going to have a talk.”

“But-” Thea began, but Laurel gave what Oliver could swear was a ‘mom look’ at the teenager that had her mouth shutting with a _click_ of teeth on teeth. Laurel pulled the relenting Thea towards the couch, her other arm looped through Oliver’s right one and pulling him along for the ride. The three of them sat down on the couch, Thea uncomfortable, Laurel determined, and Oliver confused.

“What’s this about, Laurel?” Oliver asked.

“What this is about, Oliver, is that this family is fracturing, and the two of you both inherited that iron stubbornness from your mother,” Laurel said. “Which means you don’t _talk_ to each other, you talk _around_ each other or make ultimatums without giving explanations. I love the both of you, and I’ve been watching your relationship splinter for months now. I’ve held back on saying anything because I kept hoping one of you would give but apparently that was a fool’s hope. So, the three of us are going to have a talk. Ollie, Thea loves you, but she doesn’t understand why you’re acting the way you are because she doesn’t know the whole story. When you see her, you don’t see her as she is now, do you?” Laurel gave him a knowing look, her green eyes warm and compassionate, quintessentially _Laurel_.

Oliver thought about what she said and realized, reluctantly, she was right. Even after all of the things that Thea had done to show the contrary, he was still expecting her to be the young independent warrior he had left behind in 2019 who was going to found a League of Heroes with Talia al Ghul. But did he want to tell Thea what was going on, since she had struggled already with everything else. “Do you really think Thea is ready to handle that, Laurel?” he asked.

“I think that if one of you doesn’t start bending, that Thea is going to run away again despite her swearing not to, and when that happens, we all know what comes next,” Laurel said. “If you don’t want your sister suffering worse than-than Tommy is right now, then you need to _fight_ for her, Ollie, and the only way to do that is to tell her the _entire_ truth, like you told me. Let her understand what you see when you look at her. I know when you look at me, you sometimes see the woman you lost, even though I know you love me for who I am and I’m very different from who she was. I can accept that this is something you struggle with because I _know_ the whole truth. Thea needs to know, Ollie, if only for her own peace of mind.”

“Will one of you tell me what this ‘whole truth’ I’m supposed to know is?” Thea asked peevishly.

“Ollie?” Laurel prompted.

Oliver chuckled ruefully. This was so like Laurel, sticking up for Thea, especially in those final months of her life in the last timeline. She had taken him to task in private over abandoning Thea to run off and play house with Felicity, one of the only times she had expressed anything but happiness for him and Felicity, and of course it had been over someone else’s pain and suffering and not her own, watching the man she loved move towards marriage to another woman. She had told Oliver how Thea had been in the aftermath of Ra’s’ death and his leaving town with Felicity. The nightmares she had suffered, the nights Laurel spent holding her close as she cried. It shouldn’t have surprised him that Laurel would do this, and he could see her point. Dr. Green had said it herself. Sometimes, you needed to be blunt. **_*1*_**

“Alright,” he said carefully. He turned to Thea. “Thea, what I’m about to tell you is only known to Laurel, Sara, and Superman. Do you understand that you need to keep this quiet? This can’t be like when you told Tommy about Malcolm.”

Thea flushed with guilt and anger at the reminder. “I promise, Ollie,” she said. “Who would I tell, anyways?”

“Even letting something slip could lead to bad things,” Oliver said. “I’ll trust you to keep your word, though. Novu. He didn’t grant me a vision of the future, Thea. He granted me a second chance at life after I was killed seven years from now.”

For a moment there was silence as Thea stared at her brother. “Come again?” she finally said, voice faint.

“I’ve lived my life once before, Thea, and that’s why I know the things that I do, why I have nightmares about Laurel dying, why I look at her so sadly or am sad when I talk about her,” Oliver said. Laurel looked up in surprise, having not heard about the conversation between the Queen siblings where Thea questioned why he was so sad whenever he talked to or about Laurel. “I didn’t just see a vision of her dying. I held her in my arms after a psychopath drove one of my arrows into her side. I held her in my arms and broke every speeding law in the world to get her to the hospital. I heard her confess that I was the love of her life while believing that the opposite wasn’t true. I watched her convulse and die, and I could do _nothing_ to stop it. You asked me why I always look sad. That’s why. Because every time I’m reminded that I’m in a time where Laurel is alive, I’m reminded of when she was taken from me and I vow, every time, that that _will not happen again_.”

Thea’s hazel eyes were brimming with tears. “If-If what you’re saying is true, that you d-died seven years from now, th-that means Laurel died sooner,” Thea choked out, looking at the woman who had been like an older sister and was now almost a surrogate mother, being a comforting presence when Oliver laid down the law or when she got into it with Sara.

“Ollie says things have changed so much he doesn’t think it will happen this time,” Laurel said. “But I refuse to be killed for the same reasons if I am to die. If I die, I want it to be because I made a nuisance of myself, because I gave people like Merlyn trouble. But I have no plans of dying, Thea,” she added hastily at seeing Thea’s horrified expression and sickly pallor. “I told Sara already that I don’t want to die young, and I’m going to make damn sure that I’m ready for anything that comes my way.”

Thea nodded, closing her eyes and focusing on her breathing, the way Oliver and Sara had taught them. She opened her eyes again. “What does this have to do with why Ollie acts the way he does with me?” Thea asked.

“Because when I look at you, I don’t see the girl whose coming up on eighteen in less than a week and who has lived a sheltered life,” Oliver said quietly, smiling weakly at his sister. “I see the 24-year-old warrior, confident in her own skin, who I left behind in 2019. I keep thinking you’re suddenly going to hit a point where the switch is flipped, and you start acting like the Thea that I remember. I’m sorry, Speedy. I keep forgetting I can’t judge people based on who they became, but who they are now.”

“So, I was like you? A bad-ass?” Thea asked.

“Yes, and you were magnificent. Both of you were,” Oliver said, including Laurel in his praise. The two women flushed. “I’ll be honest, Thea. I was planning on postponing flipping the switch when you turn eighteen because of what you said tonight. But maybe… maybe the way I’m doing things isn’t quite the right approach. Maybe I need to provide a carrot and not just the stick. So, when you turn eighteen, I’ll flip the switch back on. I hope you understand I’m putting my trust in you, because Laurel clearly thinks you’ll understand.”

“I’m trying, Ollie,” Thea said. “I just- I don’t get why you’re trying so hard with Emiko.”

“That’s between Emiko and I, Thea,” Oliver said quietly. “But the main reason is because I want as much of my family as I can possibly get. I love the both of you in different ways. And one day, you, and Laurel, and Roy _are_ going to join me in the field. It’s in your bones as much as it is mine. I know that because I’ve seen it before. It took you a while to accept that this was who you are in the future, Thea. I’m hoping it won’t take nearly as long now, because Ra’s al Ghul is not a patient man. If he believes I am forfeiting on my end of our bargain, he will come for you and this time, I won’t be able to stop him. I don’t want to lose you.”

“You-you won’t,” Thea said strongly. “I just wanted to know why you were so different, Ollie. And if you had told me that without Laurel backing you up and without Superman flying around, I might’ve said you were pulling my leg. But I believe you. I believe you, and I love you, and I’ll try harder to be like the sister you remember. I-I won’t make a fuss when Emiko comes to the Quiver. I’ll even apologize for what I said.”

“Thank you, Thea,” Oliver said. “Now, is there anything else you want to know?”

“Did I meet someone?” Thea asked with a wicked grin.

“You did,” Oliver said, lips twitching. “You and he were very close. I’m sorry that that isn’t the case in this new timeline.”

“Who was he? Do I know him?” Thea asked.

“Roy Harper,” Oliver said, and couldn’t help the smug grin when Thea’s jaw dropped, and her eyes bugged out. Laurel hid a smile with her hand as she recalled the complete apathy Roy and Thea had shown towards one another during training while wondering how the two had become close. “To be fair, the way you got together _last_ time was him protecting you from some gang-bangers in the Glades, and you did it partly to piss off Mom.”

“Mom?” Thea asked in a suddenly small voice.

Oliver closed his eyes. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “This new timeline… it isn’t all good, Thea, and I have to live with the guilt of every death that didn’t happen last time. I may have saved the 503 people who died in Merlyn’s Undertaking, but I failed to save some very important people. Mom, Walter, Joanna… Mom lived until next year, and she gave her life for both of us, just like she did this time. Walter lived in Starling City until after Slade Wilson laid siege to the city with an army of super-soldiers, and then he moved back to England. Joanna…” Oliver looked at Laurel, whose lower lip was trembling at the mention of her deceased friend. “She survived the Undertaking and joined Wethersby & Stone.” Oliver took Laurel’s hand in his. “Every death that happened in this timeline that didn’t happen is on _me_ , not on anyone else. You need to let go of your guilt, Laurel.”

“If I’m not guilty, then you aren’t either,” Laurel said, meeting his gaze. “You didn’t tell your mother to commit suicide. You didn’t tell the Huntsman to kill Felicity Smoak. You didn’t kill Walter. You didn’t tell those mercenaries to come and grab me.”

“I guess we both have something to work on, then,” Oliver said. He pulled his gaze away from Laurel and looked at his sister. “Any other questions?”

“Not right now,” Thea said quietly. “Roy Harper. _Roy Harper_. You have _got_ to be kidding me…”

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver stood looking out across the city from his office at Queen Consolidated, a pensive expression on his face. It had been a few days since Laurel had forced the issue of telling Thea, and Oliver found himself being thankful that his girlfriend had done just that. Thea had changed her attitude almost overnight, becoming the perky, cheerful young woman Oliver remembered her becoming _after_ being trained by Malcolm of all people. It appeared that all she had needed, all that she had _wanted_ , was to understand _why_ Oliver was holding her to such high standards. Now that she knew what she could become, she had embraced the training with open arms again and was enjoying her sparring sessions in the Bunker.

As a result, Sara was much more easy-going and relaxed when supervising Thea and Laurel, the latter of whom she had been forced to temper the enthusiasm of because it was borne from desperation at not wanting to die young. That revelation still sent pang through Oliver’s chest at the thought of Laurel telling Sara that she didn’t want to die, that she had things she wanted to do with her life, people and things she wanted to live for. He would make sure she got that chance, even while acknowledging that Laurel was not yet that brave woman who had faced Darhk’s murderous intent fearlessly. She was getting there, but she wasn’t there _yet_.

Oliver was again reminded how he tended to judge people based on who they had been rather than who they were. It was easy with Sara and Laurel, especially the latter since she had hardly changed over the years from the woman he had always known and loved. But Thea and Tommy had borne the brunt of his looking at them through rose-tinted glasses, so to speak, and seeing the people they became rather than the people they were now. That had ultimately led to Tommy’s betrayal, since Oliver had expected him to be able to handle finding out Oliver’s secret better than he had the last time, thinking of him as the good man that he had been rather than the selfish and admittedly naïve one he had truly been before he started dating Laurel and his father had cut him off.

Oliver’s expression grew sad as he thought of the man that he had considered his brother. He knew what Tommy was going through and had been for the past month. He had gone through it himself when he joined the League after using the Lazarus Pit to save Thea from dying. He had focused on his desire to bring Ra’s down and end the threat that the League of Assassins posed to his city, focused on his ultimate goal of sabotaging the plane and killing both himself and Ra’s, as had been his original plan. He supposed that, had he been with her at the time, that he would have been more focused on getting back to Laurel. That was another sign that he had never loved Felicity Smoak the way he loved Laurel Lance. She had not once factored into his thoughts when he was with the League despite the night they shared. If his friends factored into his thoughts at all, it had been with thoughts such as hoping that Laurel was growing stronger as a defender of Starling, especially since he had asked her to look after their city when he left for Nanda Parbat. **_*2*_**

Oliver’s thoughts turned to more recent developments, pulling out of thoughts of a future that, with any luck, wouldn’t exist. Ted Gaynor and his men had started their armored truck heists and Oliver had put them down hard. They were all now resting comfortably in cells at Iron Heights while awaiting trial, having been unable to make bail. Kazumi Adachi was now in witness protection, something Oliver had had to fight hard for since no one really knew the Ninth Circle existed. Speaking of, there had been no attempts by the Ninth Circle as of yet to kill any of those who were slated to die in the Undertaking, and the longer they went with no sign of the Ninth Circle, the more concerned Oliver and Emiko became. Emiko had told Oliver it could only mean they were planning something, something that would result in mass casualties.

Oliver was also beginning to think he might need to recruit new allies, if only for the short-term. There were rumors of a certain hot-headed, gun-wielding vigilante in a hockey mask floating around. It didn’t surprise Oliver that his killing of Malcolm on live television had inspired Rene the way his defeat of Darhk had. There was also Ted Grant to consider. Oliver couldn’t help but think a threat to the people of the Glades would be enough to bring the Wildcat out of retirement, self-imposed as it was. While Oliver was hesitant to do so, the truth was, he needed a field-ready team with the Ninth Circle circling innocents with murder in their eyes. He couldn’t wait for Laurel, Thea, and Roy to be ready. Right now, all he had was Emiko and _maybe_ Sara, depending on how long it took for Rip to decide to form the Legends. He _needed_ a field-ready team. **_*3*_**

Especially since, on top of everything happening in Starling City, he was still responsible for finding and recruiting heroes into the Justice League. He needed more than Emiko standing ready, especially if the Ninth Circle got it into their heads to go after multiple targets at the same time. It might not be something they could do, depending on how that would affect the timeline, but it was always a possibility that Oliver had to consider. It was probably a good thing that Superman was flying about, Oliver reflected. With something so impossible already being a reality, convincing Ted and Rene that he had allies who could travel through time would be helpful. Tonight, he made his approaches to Ted and Rene, to at least begin sounding them out. He suspected Ted would be the one he had the hardest time convincing because of what had happened with Isaac Stanzler going overboard and Ted thinking it was his fault.

Oliver was pulled from his thoughts by a knock on the door. He looked out to see Barry Allen standing outside. Oliver turned, waving Barry in. “What can I do for you, Barry?” Oliver asked.

“Actually, it might be about what I can do for you,” Barry said. “I mean, I know that Superman can’t be the only other member for the Justice League, that you’re gonna need to find more people to join up…”

“You volunteering, Barry?” Oliver quipped teasingly.

“What? No, no, I’m no hero, not like you,” Barry said, and Oliver inwardly chuckled at just how wrong the younger man was without realizing it. “I’ve always believed in the impossible, even before Superman showed up. Even though I know what happened the night my mother was murdered, I’ve still believed in the impossible and dug into things that interested me. I found something that might be helpful for you. There’s rumors about a guy in Amnesty Bay who can, I don’t know, _speak_ to the ocean. Rumors of a man whose saved fishing trawlers that get caught on reefs during storms, of a man who fought a shark to save a woman and won. It sounds like something that might interest you, I thought.”

“It _does_ interest me, Barry,” Oliver said. “Even if it turns out to be a wild goose chase, it’ll be something to look into. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. If you do end up finding something else, come tell me.”

“I will,” Barry promised, and turned to go while Oliver turned back to the view of the city, making a special note to send a message to Henry and ask him to look into happenings around Amnesty Bay.

**_*DC*_ **

Ted Grant was sweeping up after another busy day when he sensed a presence in the shadows. He set his broom aside and turned to meet his guest’s eyes. “What can I do for you, Mr. Queen?” Ted asked. “Worried about how Laurel is driving herself to exhaustion?”

“Her sister is handling that,” Green Arrow replied. “I’m here on other business… Wildcat.”

Ted tensed up at the mention of his old vigilante codename. “How did you know about that?” he asked.

“I have my sources, and they’re almost never wrong,” Green Arrow replied. “Ted, I know you had your reasons for stopping and I respect your decision. But there’s a new threat to the Glades, something more insidious than Malcolm Merlyn and Tempest. And as much as I want to keep my focus on Starling City, I _do_ have other responsibilities in exchange for being allowed to operate as Green Arrow. There are going to be times that I have to leave Starling, and I want the people here protected from crime, corruption, and the threat I mentioned. You aren’t the only one I’m approaching, but you have more experience than the other person I plan to approach.”

“You don’t know what you’re asking,” Ted said. “The last time I did this, my student… he lost it. I don’t even know where he is now, but I’d bet he’s still doing what he did that saw me leave this all behind.”

“I won’t pretend to understand why you mourn scum,” Green Arrow said. “But I get it. There are some people, like you, who are better than I am, who are heroes in ways that I never will be because at the end of the day, I believe some threats should be ended permanently. But that’s why I need others like you, Ted. I need people who don’t believe in that, who believe in being beacons of hope.”

“Say I do this, say I join you,” Ted said. “How would this even work? You, me, and whoever else all patrolling the city in one large cluster? That’d present one hell of a target, man.”

“I know, which is why it wouldn’t be how it went down,” Green Arrow replied. “This is a big city, Ted, and even the Glades is pretty widespread. I see it generally being that each member of the team patrols a different part of the city, protecting the people there. Only against serious threats would I be bringing the whole team along for the ride, and even then, we’d break into groups. By the time I’m done training my current students, there will be a maximum of six to seven people on my team aside from myself and our tech support, Oversight. Going out in such large numbers _would_ present a target. But spread across the city, defending the people in every neighborhood? That will show the people of this city that there are still good people who want the best for them and inspire this city out of darkness. I’m asking you to consider being a part of that. If you decide yes, come to Lance Floral at six p.m. tomorrow night.” Green Arrow turned and left the gym, and a contemplative Ted Grant, behind.

**_*DC*_ **

Rene Ramirez, hockey mask in place, raised his guns and fired, sending the bodyguards for the street pusher, and the street pusher himself, scurrying. He _hated_ men like this; they were why his wife was the way that she was, always strung out on some drug and leaving their daughter, Zoe, to fend for herself. Rene ducked behind a car as the bodyguards returned fire, snarling to himself that his aim wasn’t as good as it used to be when he was in the Navy. He had let it fall by the wayside since he was struggling with keeping a job (which, it turned out, was because Malcolm Merlyn had been screwing with the Glades over what happened to his wife almost twenty years ago).

The sound of a bow being fired startled Rene and the drug dealers both as a zipline arrow landed above the doorway of a shop near where the drug dealers were huddled behind a car. The Green Arrow slid down the line on his bow and dropped to the ground, turning and firing a sleeping gas arrow, which knocked the dealers out within moments. Green Arrow turned and made his way towards where Rene was standing. “Rene Ramirez, it’s time we had a talk,” Green Arrow said.

“What kind of talk?” Rene asked suspiciously. “I have as much right to be out here as you do! It’s my city, too!”

“It is, and you do,” Green Arrow replied agreeably, startling Rene. “But there is more to defending the city than going after street pushers and gang-bangers, Rene. There’s a new threat to the people of this city, and especially the Glades. But I have responsibilities now that could take me away from Starling at a critical juncture. I need to know the people of Starling City will be safe if I have to leave on business for the Justice League. Will you help me safeguard the city against any and all threats? If the answer is yes, be at Lance Floral tomorrow at six p.m.” Green Arrow fired a grappling arrow and was pulled up and away before Rene could even formulate an answer.

Rene stared up at where Green Arrow had disappeared. That had almost sounded like Green Arrow wanted to recruit him not for the Justice League but for a team to protect Starling City. Lance Floral? He supposed it was a nice neutral ground since the Lance family was connected to him. But did Rene want to do this? Did Rene want to be a part of a team? He thought he’d been doing all right on his own.

But… if there was a threat to the Glades, then wasn’t it his _duty_ to protect them? Wasn’t that why he had put on the mask in the first place?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* This is more or less the beginnings of Laurel being ‘Team Mom’ as the phrase goes in the Lauriver Discord, which is what Black Canary essentially is for the Arrow family in the comics.
> 
> *2* I haven’t seen this deleted scene for myself, but according to others, there is a deleted scene in 3x20 where Oliver asks Laurel to look after their city and that *this* is why Laurel wasn’t with Oliver and everyone else going to Nanda Parbat, because he was entrusting their city’s safety to her. Like all other scenes which would show growth/evolution of Laurel’s character, it was deemed ‘unimportant’ by the likes of Guggenheim in favor of things like the completely unnecessary (not to mention badly-timed considering where they were, why they were there, and what was going on with Thea) Olicity sex scene.
> 
> *3* I debated heavily on this matter, especially since I’m one of those who objected to the large expanded team of later seasons (especially since one of the given reasons for Laurel’s death was ‘there were too many masks’). But in Oliver’s mind, he needs a field-ready team since Roy, Thea, and Laurel are still training.


	13. The Team

“Ted?” Rene asked in surprise as he found himself coming to a stop outside of Lance Floral to find the man whose boxing gym that he trained at standing and looking uncomfortable. “What are you doing here?”

“The same thing as you, I expect,” Ted said. “A certain archer came to my gym. He knew things about my past that I haven’t told anyone.” Ted sighed. “I used to be a vigilante, Rene. And I’m guessing you’re one, too. Maybe that new one I’ve been hearing about, the run-and-gunner?”

“Yeah,” Rene said after a minute. He looked at the darkened shop. “So, what, we just wait out here until he shows up?”

As if in answer to his question, the shop door opened, and Sara Lance stood framed in the doorway. “Come in, gentlemen,” she said, stepping back and swinging the door open wide. Ted and Rene stepped in, and Sara shut the door behind them. “Follow me,” she said, leading them towards the stock room in the back. She stopped in front of a section of wall. The two men exchanged looks, and then their eyes widened as the wall slid away to reveal an elevator. “Come on, he’s waiting,” Sara said, stepping onto the elevator. Ted and Rene stepped on with her, and the elevator descended, and less than a minute later, opened up into an underground base.

“Welcome,” said Oliver Queen from where he was standing with his sister Emiko in front of the elevator as the three stepped out. “I’m glad you came.”

“I came to hear what you have to say,” Ted said. “I’m not agreeing to anything yet. Your methods and mine… they’re not the same, and I don’t know if I can do things your way.”

“I don’t expect you to,” Oliver replied. “Follow me.” He led Ted, Emiko, and Rene towards a device while Sara went to talk to the dark-haired man sitting at the computers who Ted assumed was Oversight. “To begin, you have to understand that the world is stranger than you know.”

“Kinda figured that out when Superman showed up,” Rene said.

“A fair point,” Oliver acknowledged. “Last year, I met a cosmic being, the closest thing to a god I’ve ever met, who gave me what I guess you could call a vision of the future. That is how I knew what I was fighting, and who, when I returned in October. Because of that foreknowledge, I stopped Merlyn and his Undertaking before it could ever come to fruition.”

“Okay,” Ted said slowly. “Say we believe you. What does that have to do with what’s happening now?” He had noted that Emiko Queen had jerked in surprise and was looking at her brother like she had never seen him before. Clearly, he hadn’t shared this whole vision story with her until now.

“When I killed Merlyn in December, I saved 502 people’s lives who would’ve otherwise died in his half-successful Undertaking come May,” Oliver replied, and both Ted and Rene felt chills go up their spines. “There is a group called the Council of Time Masters who have grown corrupt, and they have decided those 502 people still need to die. These are innocent men, women, and children. The Council has recruited the services of a shadow organization called the Ninth Circle to do this.”

“But we can’t safeguard these people all the time,” Rene protested. “It’s impossible!”

“We only need to safeguard them _once_ ,” Oliver replied, holding up a finger for emphasis. “The Ninth Circle cannot try to kill them more than once without upsetting the time stream, which will cause all sorts of chaos that the council doesn’t want.”

“How do you even know this?” Ted asked. “It seems pretty out there for, well, a modern-day Robin Hood.”

Oliver sighed; he was never going to escape that comparison, was he? He brushed it off a moment later; there were more important things to be concerned with, like answering Ted’s question. “Even among the Council of Time Masters, there are people with a conscience. One of them came to me, and he also brought this.” Oliver touched the device they were looking at. “He called it an Encyclopedia of Foresight. It will let us know _who_ is in danger along with the time and location of when the Ninth Circle moves against them.”

“So, what is it you need from us?” Rene asked skeptically.

“As I said to both of you last night, I have other responsibilities as the leader of the Justice League, first and foremost being finding and recruiting heroes who can stand against overwhelming threats. Because of this, I can’t always be in Starling. Emiko here is joining my team but, like me, she’s just one person, and if the Ninth Circle go after more than one target…” Oliver trailed off leadingly, and Rene and Ted exchanged glances. “I guess the question is, if you know that innocent people are at risk, can you really turn away? Are you that jaded,” he looked at Ted, “or that limited in your vision of what you can do to protect the city?” He glanced at Rene. “I don’t expect you to answer right away. You have twenty-four hours to decide.”

Ted was silent. “I don’t need twenty-four hours,” he finally said. “When it comes right down to it, the man who saved the Glades is telling me there’s another threat, and he’s asking me to help save innocent lives. I don’t know if I’ll do all these little patrols you do, but when it comes to that,” he pointed at the Encyclopedia, “I’m with you.” 

“Same,” Rene said after a moment.

“Good,” Oliver said. “You’ll need the gear you have for now, but both of you need to stop by Queen Consolidated so my Q-Core division can get your measurements and come up with something stronger.”

“Like your armored suit?” Rene asked.

“Maybe not precisely like that, but yes,” Oliver replied. “I take care of my people, and I want you as protected as possible in the field. The threat we’re going up against are hard-hitters. What you have might be enough in the beginning, but once they realize we have a way of being there to stop them, they’ll come packing everything they need to take down some meddlesome vigilantes.”

“I gotta say, I’m not so sure about you spending money on me for what will be probably be a limited mission,” Ted said. Rene grunted in acknowledgement. **_*1*_**

“I understand,” Oliver said, “but once the Ninth Circle realizes we have our own ‘crystal ball’, they’ll be coming with overwhelming force. Something like what I use will be a must. And I hope it’ll end up for being more than just intervening in these situations.” Oliver gave Ted and Rene each a serious look. “I may have saved a lot of lives, gentlemen, but it came at the cost of the lives of my mother and stepfather. I want to minimize the number of deaths I have on my conscience. Please. Let me keep you safe if you’re going to work with me, so that you can return to _your_ loved ones.”

Rene sighed. “Alright,” he said. “God knows I don’t want to leave my daughter’s fate in my wife’s hands.” Ted looked at Rene in concern, but Rene shook his head, indicating he didn’t want to get into it here.

“I get it,” Ted said. “I know I got people I love who wouldn’t want to see me go. But don’t think this means I owe you full membership on your team.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Oliver said. “But the Ninth Circle? They’re worse than fighting the Bertinellis and the Bratva, and I got that,” he pointed at the RQ-1141, “out of the purgatory of Applied Sciences because I needed an edge. That is what each of you is gonna need to be able to fight the Ninth Circle. If you didn’t, I wouldn’t be bothering.”

“Alright,” Ted replied, mollified. “I saw what you were up against on the news with the mob. If this Ninth Circle is worse… I can swallow my pride.”

“Good,” Oliver said. “Now, this _will_ require you to come here most nights, since we will never know which nights the Ninth Circle is trying something. While you’re here, I would encourage you to join the team’s sparring sessions, keep your reflexes sharp and maybe even pick up a few new things along the way.”

“Who all is on the team?” Rene asked, even as a hum came from the elevator.

“Come and find out,” Oliver said. He turned and led them off to the side as the elevator door opened and four people exited the elevator, Ted and Rene being familiar with only two of them: Laurel and Sara Lance. “Everyone hold a moment, introductions are in order,” Oliver said, and his trainees (and their trainer) lined up, three looking curious and one of them amused. “Now, I know this is out of the blue, but with the threat from the Ninth Circle, I need people who are ready to go. Those of you training are getting there, but you’re not ready just yet.” Oliver gestured to Rene and Ted. “These are Rene Ramirez and Ted Grant. They’ll be joining Emiko and I on the field team. And I hope, one day, that each of you will be joining us, too. This is _not_ a judgment against any of you. We didn’t expect a threat like the Ninth Circle to come at the city with such a focus. I had hoped that you would be ready to go before we had to worry about another threat.”

“It’s okay, Ollie, we understand,” Laurel said. She gave a nod to the two. “It’s good to see you two down here. Though I’m wondering why Ollie chose you.”

“I used to be a vigilante, Wildcat,” Ted said with a shrug.

“I’ve been taking care of drug pushers in the Glades,” Rene said.

“I’m thinking of calling him Wild Dog,” Oliver said, smirking.

“Wild Dog?” Rene huffed in annoyance, earning a smirk from Roy and a snicker from Thea. The Lance sisters hid a grin.

“The shirt combined with the run-and-gun attitude kind of sells the name,” Oliver said with a shrug.

“We are gonna _talk_ about this codename business,” Rene said firmly.

“Uh-huh,” Oliver said, his tone utterly relaxed, as though he were certain of the outcome. Rene gave another annoyed huff and glared at the modern-day Robin Hood.

“Rene, Ted, you know Laurel and Sara,” Oliver said. “This is Roy Harper and my sister, Thea Queen.”

“Don’t you mean Thea _Merlyn_ , the daughter of that bastard who was gonna blow up the Glades?” Rene asked, and Thea wilted at his harsh look. **_*2*_**

“My _sister_ is not her biological father,” Oliver replied coldly, stepping between Thea and Rene and towering over the Hispanic man forebodingly. “If you were paying attention, you’ll remember Merlyn had _both_ his children tied to chairs along with my son and girlfriend, and he was planning on killing them _all_.”

“Sorry,” Rene said grudgingly towards Thea.

“You’re not the first to give me that look,” Thea said miserably.

“One day, Speedy, things are going to be better and people will have forgotten about who your father was,” Oliver said bracingly.

“Is that her codename? Speedy?” Rene asked with a smirk.

“No,” Thea said firmly.

“We haven’t really decided on anyone else’s codename except Roy’s,” Oliver said.

“What am I, chopped liver?” the dark-haired man at the computers asked.

“Sorry, Henry,” Oliver apologized. “Ted, Rene, this is Henry Fyff, or Oversight. He’ll be our eyes and ears when we’re in the field, handling hacking and quarterbacking the missions.”

“Nice,” Rene admitted. “Always good to have tech support.”

“It is,” Oliver said with a nod. “Roy’s is Arsenal, because once I’m done training him, he’s going to be prepared for anything that comes his way.”

Before anyone else could say anything, there was a chiming sound. Everyone turned to see the Encyclopedia was blinking orange and making the chiming sound. Oliver instantly walked over and activated the Encyclopedia. A holographic image of a man appeared, slowly de-aging until… “A kid?” Rene asked.

“Trent Cullen, currently age fourteen, straight A student at his high school in the Glades,” Oliver rattled off. “Goes on to be the President of the United States that ushers in reforms that see the end of self-proclaimed militias, re-emphasizing that that is the role of the National Guard. This keeps a man named Vandal Savage, an immortal tyrant, from being able to overthrow the government by uniting these militias.” **_*3*_**

“I gotta say, I’m uncomfortable with this,” Rene said. “I know some guys who went to those kinds of places. They were good guys.”

“It’s not our place to judge whether these people are worth saving, Rene,” Oliver said. “And our personal opinions don’t matter. What matters is saving innocent lives. That is what this path is about. If you aren’t going to do that, then you can get out.” Oliver checked the information. “Found shot to death outside of a community center in the Glades… two hours from now. Oh, and Rene? He’s not the only one. A whole bunch of kids were with him and died the same way. These people don’t _care_ about collateral damage.”

“So, what now, hoss?” Rene asked after a moment, and the familiarity of the situation almost had Oliver issuing the order to suit up. But then he recalled when and where he was, and the moment passed.

“Now, I get ready,” Oliver said. “Right now, the rest of you don’t have protective gear and I won’t risk your lives. For this one point, I’ll handle it on my own.”

“I didn’t sign up just to sit on the sidelines,” Rene said. “I can get my gear and get back here before an hour’s up.”

“Same here,” Ted said. “You said yourself that they won’t be packing enough heat to take us down at first. Let us do what you brought us on to do.”

“Emiko?” Oliver asked.

“Same as these two, Oliver,” Emiko said.

“Alright,” Oliver said after a moment. “Get your gear and meet back here in _one_ hour, because we’ll be heading out thirty minutes prior. Sara, you train Laurel. Roy, you and Thea.”

“Got it,” Roy said, looking disgruntled while Thea gave Oliver a suspicious look.

“Come on, sis,” Sara said. The former assassin and three vigilantes-in-training broke off and began their training while Emiko, Rene, and Ted headed for the elevator to go fetch their gear.

**_*DC*_ **

Green Arrow, Red Arrow, Wild Dog, and Wildcat arrived on the scene only moments after the Ninth Circle’s arrival. Not for the first time, Green Arrow reflected that the Ninth Circle’s foot-soldiers’ get-up was reminiscent of the Gestapo from World War II before nocking and firing a magnetic arrow, ripping the weapons from the hands of the Ninth Circle soldiers. A pair of explosive arrows took care of the weapons permanently, and then the vigilantes were on the Ninth Circle.

Green Arrow ducked under the wild swing of one Ninth Circle agent, grabbing his arm and swinging him around to face Red Arrow, who buried an arrow in his chest with a grim expression on her face behind the veil she wore. Wild Dog fired his own guns, catching Ninth Circle agent after Ninth Circle agent in the legs, arms, or chest (Green Arrow made a mental note to modify the shooting range at the Quiver so that Wild Dog could practice his shooting skills to become more accurate instead of the wild-fire he currently engaged in) while Wildcat pummeled the life out of every Ninth Circle agent who came at him. There were only ten Ninth Circle agents, hardly a match for Green Arrow, who had been trained by Talia and Ra’s al Ghul; Red Arrow, who had been trained by Dante, a leading member of the Ninth Circle; Wild Dog, who had been trained by the Navy; and Wildcat, who was a champion boxer in addition to being an experienced vigilante.

Soon, the Ninth Circle agents were all down and out, some groaning, others completely out of it or dead depending on who they ended up faced with. Green Arrow turned to the frightened teenagers that were slowly beginning to look relieved. “It’s alright now, you’re safe,” he said before activating his comms. “Oversight, contact Quentin Lance of the S.C.P.D. Tell him that there’s some goons that need picked up outside of the Wilkins Community Center in the Glades.”

“Got it, boss,” Oversight said.

“So, what now?” Wild Dog asked curiously.

“Now?” Green Arrow returned, amused. “Now, Red Arrow and I wait for the police to arrive and secure those who are living before we go on a quick patrol. Don’t want any of these bastards getting any ideas. You and Wildcat can do what you wish, whether that’s stick around here, go on a patrol of your own, or call it a night.”

Wildcat and Wild Dog shared a look. “We should probably stick around until the police get here,” Wildcat finally said. “The police will need to know what we look like, so they know we’re working with you.”

“Yeah, I don’t fancy getting shot at by the cops because they don’t know I’m working with you,” Wild Dog said, holstering his pistols.

“Fair enough,” Green Arrow acknowledged. The four vigilantes fell into an uncomfortable silence while the teens stared at Green Arrow in awe and the other three in confusion. Within twenty minutes, squad cars and a police sedan were pulling up in front of the community center. The police got out of their cars and approached the vigilantes, teens, and downed Ninth Circle agents.

“What, one of you running around the city wasn’t enough?” Quentin Lance griped at Green Arrow. “You gotta recruit playmates, too?”

“Detective,” Green Arrow greeted, lips twitching. “These are Red Arrow, Wild Dog, and Wildcat. They’ll be helping primarily with _this_ problem.” He nudged one of the unconscious Ninth Circle agents. “They may expand their operations a bit and thought it wise you know they work with me.”

“Right,” Quentin sighed while Lucas Hilton shook his head in disbelief. Both of them were wondering the same thing: what the hell was becoming of the world that had been so normal mere months ago? Now they had vigilantes acting as officers of the law, a super-powered alien flying around Metropolis, more public sightings of the Batman in Gotham, and rumors of even more of this type of phenomena in places as far away as Paris, where there were rumors of some woman with a golden lasso and ancient armor. There were even rumors of some guy in green in nearby Coast City who created what scientists were calling ‘hard light constructs’, whatever that meant. “So, what’s the story?”

“The Ninth Circle,” Green Arrow said, nudging the unconscious agent again, “has been contracted to kill people that their employers believe should have died in the Undertaking. I have a source of information that lets me know who is going to be in danger and where. There may come a time when I’ll give you intel to work from, Quentin. If that day comes, you’ll need to move fast.”

“The S.C.P.D. will get the job done, even if I have to twist a few arms,” Quentin said. “So, on a scale from average thug to Malcolm Merlyn, how bad are these guys?” **_*4*_**

“Merlyn,” Green Arrow said plainly.

“Great,” Quentin huffed. “How widespread?”

“The Ninth Circle has agents seeded through all levels of society,” Red Arrow answered. “When you run these men through the system, you’ll find they come from all different social groups, income levels, and so on. There will be nothing that seems to connect them, and that’s by design. The Ninth Circle is insidious and has hidden beneath the surface of the world for centuries, manipulating people and events for their own profit.”

“Sounds a little loony to me,” Quentin said.

“People said the same thing about Tempest, Quentin,” Hilton said dryly, remembering how he had told Green Arrow that Tempest was just a part of his Robin Hood delusion only to get egg all over his face when the news announced that Tempest was very real and that Malcolm Merlyn was it’s leader.

“Yeah,” Quentin sighed. He glowered at Green Arrow. “Ever since you turned up, it’s like all the crazies have come out to play.”

“Sorry,” Green Arrow replied in an entirely unapologetic tone. Quentin huffed again in annoyance.

“So, can we go now?” Wild Dog asked.

“Yeah,” Quentin grunted, knowing that in the new guidelines all that was really needed was for Green Arrow to call in his latest capture and where they could find them. The new vigilantes sticking around to introduce themselves was a courtesy, not an acknowledgement that they should follow proper procedure and file statements on the matter.

Wild Dog turned to Wildcat. “Heard about some drug dealers on the south side,” he said. “You in?”

“If only to keep you out of trouble,” Wildcat said, and the two headed off in one direction while the archers went off in another. Quentin shook his head and wondered for the umpteenth time what use the world had for men like him now that vigilantes like Green Arrow and his team were authorized to act as law enforcement agents.

**_*DC*_ **

Laurel, Thea, Roy, and Sara were all gone by the time Oliver and Emiko got back to the Quiver. “Everyone else head home for the night?” Oliver asked his techie friend.

“Laurel, Thea, and Roy,” Henry confirmed. “Sara decided to go out and harass some Russian gangsters that have been trying to set things up again.” He shuddered. “The things she said she wanted to do to them…”

Oliver smiled grimly. “The Bratva beat the hell out of her sister, then shot Sara and left her for dead,” Oliver said. “They’re getting off light these days because she’s had time to mellow.” Henry mouthed ‘mellow?’ as Oliver turned to Emiko. “Go ahead and leave your gear here for now,” he said. “I suspect Q-Core will have your new gear ready soon since it’s their first real objective.”

“Sounds good,” Emiko said, heading towards the facilities with her stack of clothes to change in privacy.

Oliver walked over to Henry. “So, what else is happening in the city?” he asked.

“Nothing coming over the police band,” Henry said. “I’ve been looking into more names from the List, but it’ll take a little while to compile all the information on them. Aside from the patrol you and Emiko just did, I don’t know what you could do, boss.”

Before Oliver could answer, the elevator began to descend. Oliver leaned over Henry as the latter brought up the video feed of the elevator interior. “Who the hell is that?” Henry asked.

“Rip Hunter, a Time Master who’s on our side,” Oliver replied grimly. He moved to greet Rip as the elevator doors opened. “Captain Hunter,” Oliver acknowledged. “What brings you by so soon?”

“It appears the Council has realized that someone is helping you, Mr. Queen,” Rip replied. “They have decided to engage in full-scale manipulation of the timeline, targeting not only those who will change things the most in the future as well as their younger selves or ancestors here in the present, but also by changing the past to allow Vandal Savage to achieve his goal far quicker than 2166. It appears that I will indeed need to form a team to stop them.”

“I’m guessing you’ve made your choice on who to bring onboard,” Oliver said, arms folded across his chest.

“I have,” Rip replied. “In addition to your suggestions of Miss Lance, Mr. Allen, Mr. Hall, and Miss Saunders, I have decided to recruit a few talented individuals: Dr. Nate Heywood, noted for his specialization in deductive historical reconstruction. The second is Mari Jiwe McCabe, codenamed Vixen, who has recently begun to act as a vigilante on the streets of Detroit a few years ahead of schedule, no doubt inspired by your confrontation with Malcolm Merlyn. Finally, there is Dick Grayson, codenamed Nightwing, a vigilante currently living and working in Bludhaven and a former protégé of the Batman. I can bring these people together, Mr. Queen, but we must move quickly. The Council is already on the move.”

“Then let’s get started,” Oliver said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* It’s one thing for Laurel, Sara, etc. to put up with Oliver’s grandiose methods of keeping his team safe. I think men like Ted and Rene would balk at having potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars sunk into protecting them for what will probably be a limited-time mission.
> 
> *2* The way I see it, someone like Rene would have a harsher attitude re: Thea considering she’s known to be the daughter of Malcolm and, with Tommy MIA, she’s the only visible member of the Merlyn family for people to vent their anger at.
> 
> *3* I think it is within reason that Savage would subvert the separatist militias that have problems with the government in order to overthrow said government, and so someone ushering in reforms that see the end of such militias would be a threat to Savage’s eventual power-base.
> 
> *4* As someone said in the Lauriver Discord, it’ll be interesting to see how this ‘scale’ of threat level changes as time goes on.


	14. The Meta Chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: The chapter is titled as such because it gets *very* meta in the back half. Also, considering this is the beginning of the Legends arc and Legends is the most meta of the shows, I thought it was a very fitting chapter title.
> 
> I want to address the fact that while the Legends and Superman are having their own things happen, I’m not going to check in on them very often, just like I barely check in with Bruce and Hal. This series, at the end, is still titled “Arrow: Rebirth”, not “Arrowverse: Rebirth”. The Legends and Superman will be doing their stuff, but the only thing I’ll do with them is check in on major things (i.e., Superman’s first meeting w/Zod). Just like I don’t check in much with Batman or Hal. This story, this series, is about Oliver, his relationships, and his city. 
> 
> I also want to address the fact that A: I can really only work on one project per fandom at a time these days and B: at the end of the day I am a Lauriver writer. So, I’ve given up doing stories that don’t involve this pairing, and this story will be my focus, as “Rise” was. This story/series is a steppingstone for me in the direction of the thing I want to do the most: a full series rewrite without the whole Peggy Sue aspect.

The Canary delivered crippling punches to the kidneys of the only standing Russian, earning grunts of pain from the man as he collapsed, paralyzed with pain, and she swung her bo staff around to crack him alongside the head.

“Quite impressive,” a British man said, and the Canary tensed, because she remembered Laurel telling her that the Huntsman was confirmed to be a British national. She turned, bo staff raised, and saw nothing but a blinding flash of light before darkness took her.

**_*DC*_ **

Nightwing flipped over a pair of goons and came down on the other side in a crouch, turning and striking at their heads with the eskrima sticks that formed his battle baton. The metal sticks struck the men in the back of their heads and they went down for the count. Nightwing didn’t let himself pause, moving forward and delivering a spinning kick to one of the thugs rushing him, sending the man careening off to the side with a split lip and broken nose. Nightwing delivered a paralyzing blow to another man’s trachea before delivering one-two-three blows to his temple, knocking him unconscious.

“A masterful performance,” a British man said. Nightwing whirled around, eskrima sticks at the ready, only to meet a blinding flash of light that overrode his senses.

**_*DC*_ **

Hawkman and Hawkgirl, who had only been back together three weeks thanks to the widespread exposure of Oliver Queen’s takedown of Malcolm Merlyn reawakening the latter’s memories in her latest reincarnation of Kendra Saunders, delivered a pair of final blows to the thugs they had found trying to rob an elderly couple. “It’s alright, you’re safe now,” Hawkgirl said to the elderly couple.

“Thank you,” the wife said tremulously. “Those thugs meant business. It’s nice to know there are people out there besides Oliver Queen who believe in doing the right thing.” She and her husband left the alley.

“That’s the tenth time someone brings up Oliver Queen in relation to what we do,” Hawkgirl told her husband (they had made that commitment as soon as possible once they were back together) with a sigh. “I guess no one’s connected us to the Hawkman and Hawkgirl who were members of the JSA in the files the president released to the public.”

“I’m sure it’s only a matter of time, my love,” Hawkman replied with a patient smile. “Who knows? Maybe in this life we can let people know we reincarnate. It is certainly a different world thanks to Queen and Superman.”

“Maybe,” Hawkgirl agreed.

“Excellent work on dealing with those thugs,” a British man said, and the two heroes turned in surprise to find a man in a trenchcoat standing nearby. “But I expect nothing less of former members of the Justice Society of America.” He raised a device, and a white light flashed before their eyes before darkness claimed them. **_*1*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Vixen had just finished knocking out a pair of jewelry store robbers when she heard a polite cough behind her. She turned and was met with a blinding flash of light.

**_*DC*_ **

Nate Heywood sighed as he made his way back towards his apartment, pizza box in one hand and fishing his keys out of his pocket in the other. Another day spent digging through the declassified files about the Justice Society had had him grinning like a loon, being able to learn all about what his grandfather had done for the country. He pushed open his door and entered the apartment, setting the pizza box on the kitchen table. He heard someone move behind him and froze before turning to face the intruder, only to see nothing but blinding light.

**_*DC*_ **

Barry Allen sighed in exasperation as he missed the bus by, what, thirty seconds? The driver had to have seen him running. Why the hell hadn’t he waited? Now Barry would have to wait another thirty minutes before the bus came around again.

“Mr. Allen?” a British man asked.

Barry turned to find a man in a trenchcoat standing beside him, as if he had appeared out of nowhere. “Who are you?” he asked, startled.

“You might say I’m an admirer,” the man said before raising a device that Barry briefly thought was some kind of gun before a flash of light engulfed his senses.

**_*DC*_ **

The Canary, Nightwing, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Vixen, Nate, and Barry all slowly came to lying on a rooftop. “What the hell happened?” The Canary grumbled as she pulled herself into a sitting position.

“Oh, my head,” Nightwing groaned as he pushed himself up. “What the hell was that flashing light and why do my brains feel scrambled?”

“Oh, I am going to thump someone with my mace,” Hawkman grumbled. Hawkgirl made a noise of assent showing she agreed wholeheartedly with this sentiment.

“I’m going to smash whoever thinks they can grab me into a pile of gore,” Vixen muttered angrily.

“Man, my pizza is going to be cold by the time I get back to my place,” Nate complained.

“At least you _got_ dinner,” Barry pointed out. “And what the hell did he mean, an admirer?”

“I meant that I admire the man that you become, Mr. Allen,” their abductor said, stepping out of the shadows. “The name’s Rip Hunter. I’m from East London. Oh, and the future.”

The seven people who had been abducted from different parts of the country all struggled to their feet, focusing the entirety of their attention on the Rip. “What the hell is this all about?” Hawkman demanded to know.

“Allow me to answer that question,” said another voice, and the seven heads shot around as the now-legendary form of the Green Arrow stepped out of the same shadows that had hidden Rip from view.

“Oliver?” The Canary asked in disbelief. “What’s this about?”

“The seven of you have been assembled by Captain Hunter for a singular purpose,” Green Arrow said, focusing on the task at hand while answering The Canary’s question. “You’ve been chosen to form a team that will travel through time and focus on countering the efforts of an organization that has dictated the fates of humanity for generations while also ending the threat posed to the world by an immortal tyrant called Vandal Savage.”

“Time travel?” Barry asked in wonder.

“Time travel,” Green Arrow confirmed. “Each of you brings something unique to the table. Sara, Dick, Kendra, Carter, and Mari will serve as the field agents of this team, actively fighting against the Council of Time Masters and Savage. Barry, your open mind regarding the impossible and your background in crime scene investigation will let you find connections that other people might miss, allowing the team to discover the weak points in the Council’s efforts to forge Savage into their chosen champion. Dr. Heywood, your expertise in deductive historical reconstruction will allow you to locate the points in history where Savage gained the most from his endeavors, allowing the team to travel to those times and counter his efforts and those of the Council to ensure his success.”

“You said this Council controls the lives of others,” Hawkgirl said. “How?”

“They have a device known as the Oculus,” Rip said, drawing their attention to him. “They have manipulated many lives in their goals. They even manipulated the life of Mr. Queen by ensuring the death of Rebecca Merlyn, causing Malcolm Merlyn to become the monster that he was.”

“You mean what happened to us, what happened to _me_ , is because of this Council?” The Canary asked tremulously.

“I’m afraid so, Miss Lance,” Rip said regretfully. “That is one reason I am recruiting you. You should have the chance to face those who destroyed the life that you could have had. In the unaltered timeline, you became a well-respected physician who helped both Mr. Queen and your sister with their injuries.” The Canary swallowed hard at hearing what could have been.

“This mission is of vital importance,” Green Arrow said, drawing the attention back to him. “I know each of you have your own missions, your own plans on what your life is going to be like. I know some of you will want to do this simply because of the amazing opportunity it offers but be warned: making changes to the timeline can have serious repercussions to the world you know. That is why, if you choose to do this, you _must_ pay attention to Captain Hunter’s words and follow his orders. He is a Time Master of long standing and he knows what can and cannot be done.”

“What if this Council decides to come after the people that we care about the way Merlyn came after the people you cared about?” Nate asked.

“We can’t say it won’t happen,” Green Arrow acknowledged. “While your efforts for now will be to counter the Council’s, it may be that one day you will be forced to confront the Council themselves before they can do something to those you care about. You will have access to a time-ship and an A.I. that monitors the timeline, and that will help you counter any efforts the Council makes against you or those you care about. But I would be lying if I said that this mission is not without dangers. There is every chance that you may not come back from this mission, because neither the Council nor Savage are to be underestimated in their ruthlessness. While some of you play integral roles in the timeline, there may come a time when the Council decides their plans for Savage supersede even the roles you were destined for.” Green Arrow forced himself not to look at Barry as he said this. “But this mission, as I have said, is of vital importance, a mission to free the world not only from the grasp of an immortal tyrant, but also to free the world’s destiny from the manipulations of men who see their fellow human beings as pawns to be moved about at their leisure. Your mission is one of bringing freedom and justice back to the world not only in this time, but in every time throughout history where these people have manipulated events to ensure their chosen champion succeeds in his endeavors. It is up to you to stand up and say ‘Enough!’” Green Arrow fell silent.

“You will be given twenty-four hours to decide,” Rip concluded, handing out cards with coordinates on them. “If you decide to join me in this mission, meet at these coordinates.” He turned and left the roof.

“Barry, Sara, meet me at my base,” Green Arrow said. “We have things we need to talk about that has some bearing on this.”

“You really think we should do this?” Dick Grayson asked, peeling his mask from his face and staring at Oliver with a bit of wonder. Here was a man who had stood against a domestic terrorist trained by the League of Assassins and exposed him and his cabal, and he was asking _Dick_ to do something out of this world. “Travel through time, fight an immortal tyrant and a group of knock-off Time Lords?”

“Yes,” Green Arrow said. He examined Dick. “You’re not as… grim as I expected, considering who trained you.”

“Ah, the old gargoyle has never had a sense of humor, don’t worry,” Dick said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “It’s not surprising you’d think anyone trained by him would be as brooding and serious.”

Green Arrow nodded and headed for the edge of the roof. He turned back. “One thing I will say is that if you do this, if you fight Savage and the Council, you won’t merely be heroes,” he said. “You’ll be _Legends_.” Then he jumped from the roof, firing a jettisoning arrow and swinging away into the night.

Barry and Sara looked at each other, Barry excited at the idea of seeing Green Arrow’s base of operations while Sara wondered what Oliver could have to say about this that he didn’t want the rest of the group to hear before realizing it must have something to do with his _own_ time travel experience. Though why he was asking Barry to come along, she didn’t know. **_*2*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Laurel and Sara exchanged amused looks at the way that Barry was almost literally bouncing as the elevator in the back of the flower shop descended to the Quiver, Sara having informed Laurel about the situation and Laurel deciding she would be here as a support for Oliver since it was likely he would be telling Barry about the future and he might need someone backing up his claims. They had known Barry admired what Oliver did, especially since Oliver had told them how Barry had been the one to come to him and tell him that Tommy had exposed him as Green Arrow, which predisposed them both towards the younger man (who was two years younger than Sara). “Take it easy, Barry,” Laurel laughed quietly.

“I know, I know, but this is the lair of the _Green Arrow_ ,” Barry said enthusiastically. “This is gonna be _amazing_ , just on it’s own. And who knows what Oliver wants to tell us.” Laurel had been told about the rooftop meeting on the drive over, and she had been surprised at the mission her sister was being recruited for. If she hadn’t already known about time travelers thanks to Oliver’s mission to kill Eobard Thawne a few months back and then his own admission to having traversed time in a different way, she probably would’ve been more shocked. As it was, she was still shocked that Oliver was tapping _her sister_ and a man he had told her was one of his _best friends_ in the vision Novu had shown him to go on a trip that they might not come back from. Laurel felt sick at the idea of losing her sister and never knowing about it, and in some ways, she was angry at Oliver for choosing Sara.

The doors to the elevator opened and the group piled out, finding Oliver standing in front of the mannequin that the RQ-1141 was currently mounted on, staring at it pensively. As they approached him, he spoke. “Thank you for coming,” he said, turning to face them, only to stop in consternation. “Laurel. I wasn’t expecting you to be here.”

“I figured I would come and lend some support,” Laurel said softly.

“For Sara or for me?” Oliver asked.

“Both,” Laurel replied. Oliver smiled softly at her and gestured for the three to join him at the circular table near the kitchen area. The four of them sat down.

“Barry, this is something that Laurel and Sara already know, but I suspect, considering your belief in the impossible, that this is going to be something that you have less trouble believing than they had,” Oliver said. Barry nodded slowly to show he understood, even if he was confused. “There’s a reason I made such a big deal on the rooftop about how changing the timeline can have serious ripple effects. Seven years from now, Barry, I died in battle and was granted a second chance at life for services rendered to the closest thing to do a god that I’ve ever met.”

“You traveled through time?” Barry said slowly.

“Not physically,” Oliver said. “As I understand it, the Monitor snagged my soul at the moment of my death and hurled it back through time to the night I returned to Starling City.”

“So, you got a second chance and you’ve been making changes for the better?” Barry asked. “Dude, you totally pulled a Peggy Sue!”

“A _what_?” Oliver asked. Laurel and Sara were likewise confused.

“A Peggy Sue,” Barry said. “It’s where a fictional character in a series of books, movies, or TV shows gets the chance to go back to the start of the series with all of their accumulated knowledge and change things for the better. Its mostly used by fanfiction writers to correct mistakes in canon and make the characters they love the most overpowered as hell.”

“My life isn’t a TV show, Barry,” Oliver said with a sigh, “and if it was, it’d be in the horror genre, not sci-fi.”

“Okay,” Barry said dubiously. “What does this have to do with the thing on the rooftop? And why are you telling me this?”

“Because I changed the timeline too much, Barry,” Oliver said. “I did so because it was the only way to keep things moving forward. But because of the changes I made, things that didn’t happen the last time around happened this time, and not _all_ of those things are good. The reason I brought you and Sara down here to talk to you about this is because Rip is including the both of you on his team at _my_ request.”

“Your request?” Sara asked, confused. “Why?”

Oliver sighed. “In the future, the two of you were the closest friends I had left after Laurel died,” Oliver said, and Barry shot a look at Laurel, who met his gaze with a soft, sad smile. “That will probably not happen anymore,” he added. “Like I said, I’ve changed things too much. But as I was saying, you two were my closest friends, leaders of your own teams of heroes. Barry, you were a super-powered hero called The Flash, and Sara, you were the eventual leader of the very team Rip is putting together. You called yourselves the Legends.”

“Catchy,” Sara said with a grin. “But I’m guessing you’re not including us because you think we’d be awesome time travelers.”

“The reason I’m asking Rip to include you is _because_ the two of you had one great flaw: you saw time travel as something amazing, something to do whenever you felt something wasn’t going right,” Oliver said. “You changed the timeline at you whims, wrecking the world more and more each time, and you didn’t _stop_. And I know I sound like a fucking hypocrite saying this, but the difference between what I did in this time and what your future selves did in the future that I remember is that my mentality has always been ‘the needs of the many’. The both of you changed time selfishly because of your own wants and desires, and the Monitor gave me plenty of memories of alternate timelines. That’s helped me understand why you two need this. You need to learn under Rip about the dangers of time travel, and learn to respect the terrible power it represents.”

“What did we do?” Barry whispered. “Or do I want to know?”

“Barry, after one of your enemies killed your father, you went back in time to save your mother’s life and created an alternate timeline that you called Flashpoint,” Oliver said. “When you returned the timeline to it’s original status, you found several things had changed. Iris’ relationship with Joe was wrecked, one of your friends had developed metahuman abilities that came with a split personality, another of your friends’ brother had died when he had been alive before Flashpoint, and…”

“And what?” Barry asked, leaning forward.

“You changed a baby girl into a baby boy,” Oliver replied. “You erased an entire person.”

Barry turned green and clapped a hand to his mouth before racing to the nearby kitchen sink and vomiting into it. Oliver watched on, feeling sorry that he was doing this to a man he considered one of his best friends but knowing he had to impress upon both Barry and Sara that time travel was not a toy. Sara’s was going to be harder, Oliver knew, because he had nightmares himself about that alternate timeline, using his meditation techniques to keep them buried. **_*3*_**

Finally, Barry returned to the table, looking pale. “I’m fine,” he croaked out.

“What about me, Ollie?” Sara asked. “What did I do?”

“Like with Barry, I’ll use only the most extreme example I have,” Oliver said. “Your team often were forced to make a choice between two terrible options. One time, you saved the village of Zambesi. Now, something happened somewhere along the way that ensured this particular timeline didn’t play out, and I suspect it was the Council or some other force doing so. But that doesn’t erase that saving the village of Zambesi in order to release a time demon so you could destroy it for good led to something horrible happening in the present day.”

“What?” Sara asked.

“In the future, Mari McCabe, who you and Barry met earlier tonight, helped me and the team when Damien Darhk kidnapped my son,” Oliver said. “In that future, I had only recently found out about William, and Malcolm Merlyn, who had become Ra’s al Ghul by that point, had shared the information with Darhk. In the timeline _I_ remember, Mari helped us track down Darhk and destroy his idol, allowing me to capture him and save William. In the altered timeline, without any sort of magical aid, I watched Darhk kill my son. I…” Oliver trailed off, closing his eyes in shame.

“Ollie, it’s okay,” Laurel said, taking his hand and holding it tight. “Whatever happened, it didn’t _actually_ happen and it won’t because William is safe now from _everyone_.”

“Thank you, Laurel,” Oliver whispered. He met Sara’s eyes. “I became Ra’s al Ghul in order to get my revenge, Sara, on _everyone_ that I held responsible, which included my team and Barry’s. I destroyed both Central City and Star City, as it was known then, and killed every last person sitting at this table, consumed by the monster I became as Ra’s. Even though I know I _didn’t_ do it, I remember a timeline where I _did_ , and that haunts me as much as Darhk killing Laurel.” **_*4*_**

The other three were silent, staring at him in shock and horror. “Oh, God, Ollie,” Laurel whispered, reaching over and hugging him close. “Just remember it didn’t happen. You’re here, I’m here, Sara and Barry are here, and you will _never_ become Ra’s al Ghul. You’re too compassionate, to loving to become that man based on what both you and Sara have told me. And I get why you were so afraid now of becoming like Merlyn. You’ve _seen_ yourself become like him in worse ways. Ollie, I know you. I know you like I know my own name. You would never do something like this unless you were completely destroyed, and losing your only child would do that to _anyone_.”

Sara was looking green as Barry had been but forced herself not to react the way he had. “Ollie, I’m so sorry,” she said. “So, this is why you want us to go. You want us to learn what time travel is _meant_ to be used for, if at all.”

Oliver nodded with his eyes still closed, Laurel’s comforting hand on his shoulder. “But there is one last confession I have to make. You remember what I said about changing things too much?” Barry and Sara nodded. “The things I remember more or less haven’t happened anymore, because a few months ago, I killed a man who was integral to the timeline where all those things occurred. I erased the Barry and Sara I knew from existence, though Superman recently told me that I should think of it more as giving you and everyone else a second chance to do things right, the way I have one.” Oliver looked up, and focused his attention on Barry, who looked a little unnerved. “You of all people deserve to know the truth, Barry. The man that I killed to erase all of those futures and create a fresh start for all of us was Harrison Wells.”

Barry stared at Oliver. “You killed Wells?” he finally whispered. “You killed the man who murdered my mother?”

“Yes, though anything he left in his will to explain why he did so was likely a lie since he wouldn’t be able to tell you the truth, yet,” Oliver said.

“The truth?” Barry asked.

“Harrison Wells died shortly after your mother did, Barry,” Oliver said. “The you that I knew, he found out in his first year as The Flash that a man named Eobard Thawne, a supervillain from the 2100s with the same powers he possessed and who called himself the Reverse-Flash, had traveled back in time to kill his greatest enemy when The Flash was still a child. The Flash from the future followed the Reverse-Flash back through time and saved his younger self, taking him away from his house, leaving an unconscious Henry Allen, a terrified Nora, and a furious and vengeful Reverse-Flash. He decided if he couldn’t kill The Flash, he would do the next best thing and ensure The Flash never came to be by ensuring he suffered a loss so devastating that he would never recover from it. So, he killed your mother, and framed your father for the crime.”

Barry’s eyes were wet with tears. “Why?” he asked. “Do you know _why_ he did it? Why he hated me so much? Was it just because we were enemies?”

“Honestly, when the Barry I knew told me why, I couldn’t believe it, and I suspect you’re not going to take this well,” Oliver said. “But you deserve to know the truth. Eobard Thawne wanted to _be_ The Flash, to supplant you in history as one of the greatest heroes of all time. When he found that he couldn’t, when he found that his destiny was to be your greatest enemy, he dedicated himself to becoming the reverse of everything that you stand for, dedicated himself to utterly destroying The Flash so that he could ultimately do what he wanted originally: be recognized as the hero that you already were. Eventually, even that wasn’t enough, and he soon dedicated himself to being the one thing that you could not stop, the one adversary that you could never beat.” **_*5*_**

Barry was silent as he digested this. So were the Lance sisters, who looked at each other in surprise. It looked like the world was always going to be a strange one now. Finally, Barry spoke. “So, in short, Eobard Thawne, Harrison Wells, whatever the hell his name is, killed my mother because he was a deluded and bitter fanboy?” he asked disgustedly.

“That was pretty much how one of your team summed it up, yeah,” Oliver said. “I’m sorry, Barry. But you should know that in the original timeline, Eobard manipulated things a little too well, and in the end his own ancestor killed himself, erasing him from existence. But there were always what you called Time Remnants of Thawne. But don’t ask me to explain the science behind those, please. I barely paid attention when you would start using five syllable words.”

“So, what now?” Sara asked quietly.

“Now? Now, you and Barry decide if you _want_ to go on the mission,” Oliver said. “I can’t make this decision for you. All I can do is give you the tools.”

“Before we do that,” Sara said, “what exactly have _you_ done to change things?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> There’ll be a little more talking about timeline changes in the next chapter along with Barry and Sara dealing with the revelations at hand, but it should end with the Legends leaving.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* I am *avoiding* the whole “Barista!” shitfest because if I had to write that fucking line, Kendra would have her throat slashed open by Savage on principle. I figure something dramatic like what Oliver did would awaken her memories of her past lives early, especially the announcement of a new team of heroes modeled after the JSA (which she and Carter were part of in a past life in this story).
> 
> *2* I hope that everyone enjoyed the recruitment pitch. I sort of modeled this after the original way they marketed “Legends”, which was a ‘trailer’ with Barry and Oliver being the ones who assembled the team instead of Rip. I figured receiving the pitch from a Living Legend like Oliver is at this point would really be a selling point for most if not all of them.
> 
> *3* For some reason, just because Sara Diggle was a *minor* barely there character, people try to downplay the fact that Barry *erased an entire person from existence*. There should have been a hell of a lot more fallout from that and I’m showcasing that here.
> 
> *4* This is a shameless plug of my story “Arrow: The Demon Awakens”. Like I said up top, this chapter got really meta. I will remind everyone that I referenced Oliver receiving memories of alternate timelines from the Monitor as a result of his own time travel way back in the first 15 or so chapters of “Rise of the Emerald Archer”.
> 
> *5* This went through some different versions because I was originally focused on making Thawne sound like the deluded and bitter fanboy that he is, but I was informed the original version made Barry sound like a bad guy, which I definitely didn’t want.


	15. Departure

Oliver was silent for a moment. Then he started. “Let’s start with the bad stuff,” he said. “When I first arrived back in this time, I decided I was going to wait for my debut as Green Arrow. Because of that, Laurel was abducted and almost filled a watery grave. After that, I realized I couldn’t wait and started my crusade all over again. I crushed the Triad, but that inspired China White to go after my sister. I also planted the idea that something was amiss in files from five years ago, which led to Walter asking Felicity Smoak to dig into those files. That led to Merlyn calling on The Huntsman and bringing him to Starling. That led to the death of Felicity and eventually to the attack on Laurel. I asked Felicity for information I could feed Walter and she gave me the intel on the warehouse where the _Gambit_ was stored. That led to the deaths of my mother and Walter. I cut ties with the Bratva, which led to Sara getting shot and Laurel being beat up and nearly killed by the Russians. I trusted Tommy with the truth about my being Green Arrow, believing he was the good man I remembered him being, and that led to my exposure and two weeks on the run. I never took down Tempest the last time because I didn’t even know it existed, and that led to Merlyn’s complete meltdown and his threatening Laurel, Thea, and my son to bring me out of hiding.”

“And what’s happened that was for the better, Ollie?” Laurel asked.

Oliver was again silent for a moment as he thought over everything. “Sara got the chance to come home an entire year and a half earlier than she did before,” he began, and Sara started before staring at him in horror at the idea that she had been stuck with the League for another year before being freed. “I ended the hold both the Bratva and the Triad had on Starling City. I freed Henry Allen a full three years ahead of schedule thanks to killing Eobard Thawne. I gave Barry a chance at a different life away from being a C.S.I. I exposed Eric Gitter, which led to Laurel becoming the head of C.N.R.I. I took control of Queen Consolidated a full year earlier with a better mind for business than the last time. Superman revealed himself to the world and has joined me in creating the Justice League. The Justice League itself never happened the last time. The Undertaking was stopped completely, and Tempest removed from power, which ensures their corruptive influence has been cut away from the city’s underworld. I can act openly as Green Arrow and not have to worry about coming up with excuses for why I need to go someplace, especially now that I’m recruiting for the Justice League. Laurel has started down the path to becoming Black Canary two years earlier and she’s doing so for reasons other than grief. Malcolm Merlyn is dead and therefore can’t trick me into a confrontation with Ra’s al Ghul that sees the city attacked by a bio-weapon and the League eventually disbanded, since they’re integral to keeping the balance of the universe and keeping the greatest evil I have ever faced locked away until this world’s champions are ready to face it.” He fell silent.

“I can’t say I understand all of what you said, Oliver,” Barry said quietly, “but it sounds to me like a lot more has changed for the better. And, not to sound callous, but the changes for the worse sound like they were mainly in your personal life. But you have changed hundreds of lives, including mine, for the better. I’m sorry that it’s come at such personal costs for you, and I wish I could do something to ease the burden of guilt you feel, but I firmly believe that you changed time with the best of intentions. If I can learn how to do that by going with Captain Hunter, then it’ll be worth it, because I’ll have followed your lead.” **_*1*_**

“Thank you, Barry,” Oliver said. “Sara, there is something you need to know about the future. You stopped being The Canary and became someone else, something better, inspired by Laurel, in fact.”

“What?” Sara asked.

“Laurel named your new persona the White Canary, because you fought in the light of day without a mask,” Oliver said. “You kept the name to honor Laurel after she died. And even though that’s not going to happen here, I thought it would be fitting if you took the name whether you go with Rip. Black Canary and White Canary, a pair of bad-ass sisters fighting the good fight in their own way.”

“I like the sound of that,” Laurel said, shooting a brilliant smile at her sister, who smiled shyly in return. The idea of fighting in the light of day, without a mask, was terrifying and yet also exhilarating. And it had been Laurel, a future Laurel but Laurel nonetheless, who had believed she could do that.

“So do I,” Sara said. “White Canary… I like it.” She smiled at her sister. “And with you using Black Canary as your codename, it means a part of me is always with you.”

“It really does,” Laurel agreed with her younger sister. Her green eyes welled with tears. “I’ll miss you, but I know that this could be something of your own, something outside of fighting for Starling. That’s really more me and Ollie. You deserve to find something that’s truly yours and maybe this will help you find it.”

“Thank you, Laurel,” Sara said with a watery smile. Oliver and Barry exchanged glances, then got up from the table and left the sisters to talk in private.

“So, I gotta ask, that dark timeline, the one where you became Ra’s al Ghul,” Barry said. “Is it that you have the memories, or just the knowledge that it exists?”

“Just the knowledge it exists, thank God,” Oliver said. “If I had the _memories_ of what that Oliver did… God, Barry, that Oliver was so _cruel_ and _sadistic_ , I don’t even recognize myself in him.” He turned to Barry. “I have to ask: any other leads like Amnesty Bay?”

“None that I can think of,” Barry said. “And I’ve been looking. Well, there’s the guy in Coast City, making hard-light constructs.”

“He’s already onboard,” Oliver said. “Superman and I had an encounter with him a little while back and since he’s basically a space cop, he’s signed on as a liaison with his agency. But thanks for keeping an eye out.” Oliver turned in place so that he was fully facing the younger man, his expression growing serious. “Barry, I have to warn you that this mission _is_ dangerous. While the Council wouldn’t let their agent that you’re most likely to tangle with harm you since you’re integral to the timeline as The Flash, Vandal Savage won’t give a damn. So, whatever happens, no matter how much you want to do more, _stay on the ship_ and let Sara and the other field agents do their jobs.”

“I will,” Barry promised. “I’m gonna stick with research, like you said. Me and Dr. Heywood will be the brains behind the brawn. No unnecessary heroics when I don’t have any powers or whatever.”

“Good,” Oliver said.

The Lance sisters joined them. “I guess we gotta tell the people we love that we’ll be leaving for a while,” Sara said. “Cuz I get the feeling this isn’t a ‘leave one day and come back the next’ sort of thing.”

“No,” Oliver said, looking at Barry for a moment, before turning his attention back to Sara. “In the last timeline, Rip claimed such to recruit the Legends, but it was a lie and he dropped you all off four months later.”

“Dick,” Sara said blandly. “So, we might be gone for four months, then?”

“Probably,” Oliver said. “Maybe longer.”

“Oh, man, I’m gonna have to tell my Dad, but I can’t tell him the specifics, can I?” Barry said, running a hand through his hair.

“Tell him Ollie’s sending you on sabbatical to get more education,” Sara suggested. “It’s not like you’re not gonna be learning quite a bit doing this.”

“Yeah, that’ll work,” Barry said, relieved. “I guess I should go home. He’s probably freaking out that I’m not home already.”

“I’ll drive you,” Sara volunteered. She turned to Laurel. “Keys.”

“Always taking my stuff,” Laurel teased good-naturedly. “That’s one thing I won’t miss. Then again, it means I get to hug my boyfriend close the entire ride back to the apartment. Win-win.”

“That’s my big sister, always looking on the bright side,” Sara said amusedly as she took the keys from Laurel. The four stepped into the elevator, riding up to the flower shop. “What’s gonna happen to the shop while I’m gone?”

“I’m thinking Thea needs a job, and Roy can be her stock boy,” Oliver said. “Just means the shop’ll only be open in the afternoon.”

“First you pair them off for sparring and now you’re forcing them to work together,” Laurel said, laughter in her voice. “Are you trying to set up your sister with her boyfriend from another timeline?”

“Roy is the only boyfriend she had that I didn’t want to kill on principle,” Oliver said blandly. “I’m just giving them the chance to see if there’s something there.”

“Wish I could be around for the fireworks,” Sara said. “Because I’ve seen those two. They’re like oil and water. They might’ve got along in the last timeline, but I don’t that’s a thing in this one, Ollie.” The four left the flower shop, Sara turning to lock up behind her as Oliver and Laurel headed for his motorbike. Oliver offered her the helmet, and she took it, giving him an amused look.

Barry and Sara got into Laurel’s car while Oliver started up his motorcycle, Laurel sitting snugly behind him. The motorcycle and car peeled away one after the other.

**_*DC*_ **

Dick Grayson looked up at the stately manor with a small smile on his face. This brought back memories. But he shook his head, focusing on why he was here. While he was pretty sure he knew what he was going to do, he wanted to get the advice of the closest thing he had had to a father since his parents were killed when he was twelve. Dick entered the manor without knocking and found Alfred Pennyworth cleaning the banister. “Master Grayson, this is an unexpected pleasure,” Alfred said, coming down and giving Dick a one-armed hug, which he returned. “What brings you back to Wayne Manor?”

“I got a… opportunity that I want his advice on,” Dick replied. “Where is he? Sleeping or the cave?”

“Where do you think?” Alfred asked knowingly. “He is putting young Master Jason through his paces.”

“I heard there was a new Robin,” Dick mused. “I guess it’s nice to know the title lives on. Means a part of me is always out there with him.”

“Indeed, sir,” Alfred said, returning to his dusting as Dick made his way to the library entrance of the Batcave, which was hidden by an ancient clock that was never active. He moved the hands of the clock into the noon position, and the clock slid away.

Dick walked down the stairs to the elevator, stepping onto it and hitting the button that would take him to the main level of the Batcave. While there was now a cave under Wayne Enterprises and had been for some time, this was always the Batcave to Dick, and it was with a sense of nostalgia that he exited the elevator and made his way into the cave proper, where Bruce was indeed putting a dark-haired young man through his katas. “Still the same old taskmaster, I see,” Dick said jovially as he approached. “You must be the new kid,” he added, looking at the young man. He held out his hand. “Dick Grayson, the original Robin.”

“Jason Todd,” Jason said after a moment, shaking Dick’s hand. “So, what, you graduated to something better or something?”

“Just came to realize I needed my own mission in life as I got older,” Dick said. “But I value the lessons he taught me.” Dick turned to Bruce, who was watching the two interact with his usual impassiveness. “Speaking of, I got something I want your advice on. A… mission I’ve been asked to go on.”

“By whom?” Bruce asked.

“Oliver Queen,” Dick admitted, and almost sighed when he noticed his mentor’s eyes narrow. Of course, the old gargoyle would get suspicious since Queen was so flamboyant and open with his heroics in comparison to sticking to the shadows like Bruce had taught Dick to. Never mind that the Robin costume was brightly-colored _because_ Dick didn’t want to stick to the shadows and wanted to be seen helping people when he was younger. In comparison, his outfit as Nightwing was closer to what his mentor would have preferred, but that was because he was fighting on his own as Nightwing and needed the anonymity that darkness brought.

“Jason, keep practicing your katas,” Bruce said after a moment before gesturing for Dick to follow him. They began making a circuit around the cave, Dick taking in the changes made since the last time that he was down here. “What’s the mission?”

“Well, for one, it’s a mission that involves time travel,” Dick said.

“Time travel,” Bruce repeated. “Even six months ago, I would have said that was impossible. But with an alien flying around Metropolis and this ‘Green Lantern’ in Coast City, not to mention Queen taking down what pundits are calling the greatest conspiracy of the modern age… What are the details, Dick?”

“There’s a group called the Council of Time Masters that’ve basically been controlling the destinies of humanity for years, and they’re upset because Queen stopping the Undertaking erased all their hard work in elevating an immortal tyrant called Vandal Savage to be humanity’s savior a couple of centuries from now,” Dick said. “They want to restore the timeline. The mission is to keep them from doing so, because Savage is apparently a mass murderer who only saves those he doesn’t kill himself.”

“How long will you be gone?” Bruce asked.

“I don’t know,” Dick admitted. “I get the feeling this isn’t a ‘leave one day, come home the next’ mission. But it _feels_ right, Bruce. It feels like the kind of thing you trained me for, to fight against this kind of tyranny.”

“I see,” Bruce said. “If Queen is telling the truth, if what you’ve told me is accurate… it is an important mission, Dick. It’s the kind of thing you’ve always wanted to do. But the question is, can _you_ do it? Can you leave Bludhaven for what could be weeks or months?”

“I guess I’ll have to find out,” Dick said. “So, you think I should do it?”

“I think you should do what your heart says is right,” Bruce said. “If this is what it says is right, then do it. If you have doubts, don’t do it.”

“It’s always that simple for you, sin’t it, you old gargoyle?” Dick asked humorously. A cough could be heard from where Jason was practicing his katas that probably covered a snigger.

Bruce was, as always, impassive as he said, “Yes. It is.” **_*2*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Sara Lance and Barry Allen, Sara with a duffel bag and Barry with a suitcase, arrived at the empty lot, having been dropped off here by Laurel and Oliver, who were disappearing into the distance. Sara had told her father and mother that she was going to be leaving Starling and traveling the world with the expense account Ollie had given her, that she needed to find her place and she hadn’t really been able to do that. Both of her parents had been upset but accepted she was an adult who could do this. They had both asked her to keep in touch, and she had lied, saying that of course she would, because how was she supposed to say that she couldn’t without revealing the real reason she was leaving Starling and her real destination?

Dick Grayson was already here, also with a duffel bag, as were the other members of the team, all with their luggage. “Looks like we’re the last to arrive,” Barry quipped. “Typical day for me.”

“Any sign of Rip?” Sara asked Dick.

“None, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t here,” Dick said with a shrug. “He’s from the future, right. They gotta have mastered stealth technology by then.”

“And indeed we have, Mr. Grayson,” Rip Hunter said as he seemed to materialize from nowhere. “A timeship would seem oddly out of place in West London in the 1900s, don’t you think?” Dick grinned at that as Rip turned and pressed a button on a device, and their new home away from home appeared in front of them. “This is the _Waverider,_ ” Rip said, “and she has been my ship for over a decade and served me well. I hope she will serve our team just as well.” He clapped his hands together. “Well, come on, all aboard. We haven’t a moment to waste.”

The team all picked up their luggage and headed into the _Waverider_ after Rip, looking at their surroundings with interest. Sara was smirking at Barry, who was like a kid at Christmas, looking every which way, taking it all in. “We’re gonna be here a while, Barry,” she said teasingly. “It’s not going anywhere.”

“I know,” Barry said, flushing but unable to hide his grin. “This is just so _crazy_. An actual time machine. I wonder how it’s powered and how it actually goes through time, if it tunnels through a quantum realm or something more linear, like a ‘road of time’.”

“I’m sure we’ll find out if we just wait and listen to Rip, Barry,” Sara said, amused, before turning to Dick Grayson. “And don’t think I didn’t notice you checking out my ass.”

“Well, in my defense, it’s a great ass,” Dick said.

“I know,” Sara said smugly. **_*3*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver and Laurel were silent as they drove away from the lot, each caught up in their own thoughts. For Oliver, it was thinking about whether this would be what brought Sara back out of her shell and set her on the path to becoming the person he remembered (though perhaps a bit wiser in the art of time travel), or if he was simply setting in motion the potential of the timeline being wrecked without his knowing it. He supposed only _time_ would tell. He also worried about Barry; his friend wasn’t a field agent, but he had the heart of a hero and a willingness to stand up for what he felt was right. Oliver could imagine Barry, having bonded with his team, deciding to grab a weapon and try and help them if they became trapped by the Council or Savage and potentially dying as a result.

For Laurel, it was a heartbreaking moment. She had only had her sister back in her life for a few short months, but Sara had already become an integral part of her life, and they had been much closer, closer than they had ever been. The few nights Oliver and Laurel had spent apart, Sara had sat up telling Laurel about some of her adventures (not the assassinations, but the lighter experiences, and all the places that she had been). Laurel, in turn, had told Sara about some of her toughest cases and how frustrated she had been before finding that thread she needed to pull to unravel everything and how exultant she was when she did. And now… now she would be going home to an empty apartment, her sister no longer there to greet her with a smile when she came back from working late at C.N.R.I., her sister’s bedroom laying dormant and empty. Worse, she couldn’t tell her father the truth about where Sara was and what she was doing, because Quentin would explode over Ollie recruiting Sara for a dangerous mission.

After all, when they had gotten back to the apartment building last night, Oliver had come with the Lance sisters to their apartment and told them the awful truth of how the original Legends were recruited and why, and what that meant for the danger that Sara would be in from both the Council and Savage. Laurel felt a thrill of anger every time she thought of the fact that her sister had been deemed _unimportant_ to history. Her sister _was_ important, at least to Laurel, and she had forced herself to stay in the car and then drive away instead of waiting for Rip Hunter to show himself so that she could break his nose for calling her sister _unimportant_. **_*4*_**

The silence in the car was broken by Oliver’s phone ringing. He answered it, bringing it up to his ear. “Oliver Queen,” he said.

“Mr. Queen, Lois Lane from the _Daily Planet_ has arrived,” Mark Snow said on the other end of the phone. “She says that she called ahead about setting aside more time for interviews regarding the book she’s writing about you.”

“I believe she did, yes,” Oliver said, wincing as he remembered he had only half-paid attention to what Lois had said during their last conversation in Metropolis about getting some time off from her work at the _Planet_ to do more interviews. “Tell her I’ll be there soon, Mark. Is there anything else?”

“A Henry Fyff dropped a file off, said it was for your ‘other job’ but that you probably wanted to see it ASAP,” Mark replied. “Something about Amnesty Bay?”

“Thank you, Mark,” Oliver said. “I’ll be in soon. Please make sure Miss Lane is provided refreshment if she needs it.”

“I will, Mr. Queen,” Mark promised before ending the call.

“Lois made good on her threat to get away from Metropolis and sit down for some lengthier interviews?” Laurel asked, smiling.

“Yup,” Oliver said slowly. “You’ll need to drop me off at Queen Consolidated before heading to C.N.R.I.” He looked over at Laurel. “What’s on the agenda for today?”

“More paperwork, and then I have to help Adrian prepare for his case in front of Judge Grell,” Laurel said.

Oliver froze. “Adrian?” he asked.

“Adrian Chase,” Laurel said with a nod. “He’s a former Manhattan prosecutor turned pro bono lawyer who moved to Starling a few months ago. He tried to keep Joanna alive. Why? DO you know him?”

“No,” Oliver said after a moment. “Though it does give me some insight into an enemy I had in the future. Simon Morrison was working with Talia after I killed her father, but he took the name Adrian Chase and played the role of my District Attorney. I suppose he must’ve killed the Adrian you know and assumed his identity rather than create a whole new persona.”

“Do you think this Simon will target Adrian in this timeline?” Laurel asked nervously. “And… what did you mean _your_ District Attorney?”

Oliver smiled at her. “Doubtful,” he said. “I realized much later that Talia kept him controlled and focused. Without someone to guide him, Simon will be nothing more than a demented mental patient to be shipped off to Arkham Asylum or something of that nature. And I was Mayor of Star City for a couple of years.”

“I can’t picture you as Mayor, Ollie,” Laurel told him honestly.

“It’s not something I’m planning on repeating,” Oliver said just as honestly. “I ended up running as an Independent because I didn’t want to get bogged down in expectations from either the liberals or conservatives, and so both groups fought me on every damn piece of legislation I tried to pass. I have no desire to get involved in politics again.”

“I think that’s a very mature decision, accepting where your strengths lie,” Laurel said. “Besides, you can do so much more for this city through charitable acts as Queen Consolidated’s C.E.O. and as Green Arrow than smiling through your teeth at people you’d probably rather put an arrow in.”

“Very true,” Oliver said with a chuckle as they entered the business district. **_*5*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* I thought it would be good for someone other than Laurel to tell Oliver this since he might not believe it coming from her even though he loves her.
> 
> *2* Writing Bruce and Dick’s interaction here was interesting because I didn’t want it to be the antagonistic relationship as shown in Titans but more of a father-son kind of thing since Bruce raised him since he was a boy.
> 
> *3* While the final pairing for Sara will be Barry, that’s gonna be kind of a road and I figure I should acknowledge Dick Grayson’s status in the DCU as a ladies’ man. Thought I’d include some light flirtation between the two just to set things off.
> 
> *4* In this paragraph, I’m trying to acknowledge that Laurel is becoming more like her comics counterpart and as likely to solve things with her fists as talking it out due to her training as a lawyer. 
> 
> *5* As I said way back in the beginning of “Rise”, I’m not sure Ollie’ll do politics simply because his experience as an Independent (which I’m pretty sure is what he ran as) wasn’t so great and right now he has no intention of doing so. Though he will have to do some politicking as leader of the Justice League, I suspect.


	16. Reporters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Okay, real quick, there *might* by some delay before the next chapter comes out because its essentially the beginning of the next episode, and this is storyline I really want to get right since it’s part of the ‘Justice League’ arc. So, depending on if I have a good day writing or not, it could mean there is some delay before I post the next chapter since the next ‘episode’ will be 3-4 chapters long or thereabouts.

Oliver Queen arrived on the administrative level of Queen Consolidated and found Lois Lane perched eagerly on one of the chairs in the waiting room outside of his office. “Lois,” he greeted cordially. “I have to say I didn’t expect you to get time off so soon for another round of interviews for the book.”

“There’s not a lot going on in Metropolis at the moment, but if what Clark told me about what happened when Kara arrived is true, I’d guess that’s not going to always be the case,” Lois said with a shrug as she and Oliver entered his office. “I figured I should get as much of this done as possible before things start going down. As it is, nothing’s going to be happening since Clark took Kara to meet his mother. Mrs. Kent has been hounding us about tying the knot and giving her some grandbabies, even if they’re adopted. Clark figures his mom will spoil Kara a bit and be sated for the time being.”

“At least your boyfriend’s mother wants you to be in his life like that,” Oliver said dryly. “Laurel’s Dad does _not_ like our relationship, especially because of the history behind it and, of course, the fact it puts her in danger from every single person looking to take down the Green Arrow.” Oliver gave Lois a look. “Something you’ll need to consider if Lois Lane continues to get exclusives from Superman. Just a thought.”

“I’m an army brat, Oliver, I can handle myself,” Lois said with an unladylike snort. “Mind if I set up?”

“Of course not,” Oliver said, gesturing for her to begin doing so. “I have something I need to look over, anyways.” Oliver circled around his desk and sat down, pulling the folder that Henry had compiled on Amnesty Bay and the unusual goings-on there to him. He opened it and held it so Lois couldn’t see the contents as he perused the various articles, grainy stills from videos, and other things. There were grainy photos of a muscular man with short blonde hair and wielding a trident bringing men onto docks, the wrecks of whaling ships laid up on the shore, the metal shattered, and long gashes cut along the hulls. Finally, there were the articles about ‘the Aquaman’ and whether he was real or merely a sailor’s myth to explain unusual happenings in Amnesty Bay.

“You do realize the window is reflective, right?” Lois asked him with a smirk, her eyes going to the window nearby. Oliver flushed as he realized she had still seen what he was reading. “So, Justice League business?”

“Always the reporter searching for the story, aren’t you, Lois?” Oliver asked amusedly. “Yes. A potential recruit. I will probably be heading out within the next twenty-four hours to begin investigating it. Which means I may have to pull Clark away from Kara and his mother. I could use another investigative eye. Which means I’ll probably ask Hal to join me as well.”

“Well, I could always come along, too,” Lois said perkily. “And why don’t you bring Laurel along? I’d like to get some of her impressions of everything you’ve done for the later chapters of the book.”

“I thought this was about my time on the island,” Oliver said.

“Oliver, people want to know not only what turned you _into_ Green Arrow, but what you did _as_ Green Arrow, the gritty details of things like the mob war and your two weeks on the run,” Lois enthused. “And since Laurel found out so quickly what you were doing, that makes her input valuable for the latter parts of the book.”

Oliver stared at Lois. “I don’t suppose I can talk you into just doing the island?” he finally asked. Lois shook her head. “I was afraid of that,” he said with a sigh. “I’ll talk to her about coming along and giving you some interviews. But for now, let’s focus on our own. We can worry about this,” he held up the closed file, “later.” Oliver steepled his fingers. “So, Miss Lane, what will we be talking about today?”

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver sighed in relief as he entered the Quiver, the file on the Aquaman of Amnesty Bay tucked under his arm. Rene and Ted were training in boxing off to the side while, to Oliver’s surprise, Emiko and Laurel were sparring and were pretty evenly matched. “That woman is like a dog with a bone,” he said. “Fighting the Ninth Circle or your average thug will be a walk in the park after dealing with Lois Lane for three hours.”

“Aw, is Ollie tired from dealing with the nasty reporter?” Thea asked with an amused grin.

“Don’t be so amused, Thea,” Oliver said dryly. “It turns out the book that she’s writing isn’t just about my time away. She wants to also explore the first two months of Green Arrow’s existence, culminating in my confrontation with Malcolm, and she’s determined to get _everyone_ involved to say something, or at least those she can get to… including pesky little sisters.”

“Hah!” Roy said, turning to look at an aghast Thea. “You’re screwed, princess.”

Thea turned on him, eyes narrowing. “Princess?” she said in as threatening and intimidating a voice as possible (which, considering she had yet to become the bad-ass she had been in the future, wasn’t all that intimidating or threatening in Oliver’s opinion, not that he’d tell her that).

“Your family is basically royalty in this city, and you sure have the airs for it,” Roy said, completely unfazed. The princess didn’t scare him. Her brother did, somewhat, but her? Pfft.

Rene and Ted exchanged glances. “You’re not gonna mention us, right?” Rene asked. “Cuz I don’t need to be talking to no reporter, hoss.”

“Don’t worry, Rene, to my knowledge, Lois only wants to cover the first two months,” Oliver said. “Has the Encyclopedia lit up at all?”

“No, and that’s worrying,” Ted said. “This Ninth Circle only has a limited time to kill all of these people in, right?” Oliver nodded. “Then they should be going out every night, and not going after just one at a time. They should he trying to get as many as possible. I don’t like this.”

“Me neither,” Rene said. “The less they act, the more likely they’re gonna try something big, and it might not be at night when we can go where we need to without much fuss.”

“We’ll take it as it comes,” Oliver said. “I think the Ninth Circle is testing us, seeing what we respond with. Speaking of, how were your appointments with Q-Core this afternoon?”

“They went alright,” Rene said with a shrug. “That Curtis guy can’t seem to shut up, though.”

“I’ve found most geniuses have a brain-to-mouth filter dysfunction,” Oliver said. “For now, we’ll keep training. Laurel, a word?” He moved off to the side as the training resumed, Emiko moving to a training dummy and beginning to practice her own katas there. “I talked with Sara a little bit last night after you went to bed,” he said. “We had to discuss your training since she won’t be here anymore.”

“I kinda figured you would pick up where she left off,” Laurel said.

“Well, according to her, you’ve mastered everything but the killing moves the League teaches it’s students,” Oliver said, and Laurel blinked, staring at him in shock. “She was very proud of how quickly you’ve progressed, and considering the drive that you had, I’m not surprised that you mastered it so quickly. The League trains its agents quickly so they can begin sending them out on assassination missions as soon as possible. But now comes the hard part: taking what you’ve learned and developing your own style with it, developing a rotation of moves for any and all combat situations. That’s where sparring against different opponents comes in. I noticed you sparring with Emiko, and that will be helpful. But… you’ll also need to know how to face off with an opponent who is naturally stronger than you and not afraid to use that to their advantage. Unfortunately, I’m the only one who can do that, unless I tried to call in a favor with Batman and since he’s still debating on whether or not to accept the position with the Justice League, well, I don’t see him doing me a favor. Plus, it would mean you’d have to go to Gotham for a while, and you can’t leave C.N.R.I. It’s not who you are.” **_*1*_**

“So, we’ll be sparring partners?” Laurel asked.

“We will be, but Laurel, I can’t go easy on you,” Oliver said. “I wish I could, because I love you, but if I go easy on you, and then you face someone who isn’t afraid to go all-out… I don’t want to lose you, so I’m going to be hard on you. Do you understand?”

“I understand, Ollie,” Laurel said softly, placing a hand on his cheek before going up on her toes to give him a quick peck on the lips. “And I trust you. I know you won’t hurt me more than necessary to teach me.” She tilted her head. “So, does this mean that I need to come into Q.C. for a suit fitting?”

“I suppose so,” Oliver said with a sad smile. Laurel was already well on her way to becoming the Black Canary. It was about time that they started the process. All Oliver would do with this was make sure she had protective gear. What form that would take would be up to Q-Core and Laurel’s own input. As long as whatever it was blocked bullets and arrows, it could be as risqué as Sara’s was (though he honestly couldn’t see Laurel going for that seeing as her cobbled together suit had been so conservative). “On another note, I am going to have to go to Amnesty Bay soon to follow up on a lead for the Justice League. I’ll be taking Clark and Hal with me, and Lois has insisted on coming along. She asked me to invite you as well so she can begin on her interviews with you for the book.”

“I’m not sure how I feel about that, Ollie,” Laurel admitted. “I know part of that is going to have to be about the Huntsman and the mercs Merlyn sent, and I just don’t know if I’m ready to talk about either of those things.”

“Well, I hope you come anyways,” Oliver said. “I don’t know if there’s anything real to these rumors or if it’s just a gimmick run by the locals. If it’s the latter, well, it’s a nice little ocean-side community. Perfect for a short getaway.”

“I’ll think about it,” Laurel promised. “When do I have to decide?”

“I figure I’ll head out in a couple of days, once I’ve fully read this file,” Oliver said, holding up the file in question. Oliver sighed. “Another reason I want you to come is so we can do normal couple stuff in between investigating this ‘Aquaman’. We hardly ever get to do stuff like go to dinner or to a movie or stuff like that.”

“These are the lives we’ve chosen, Ollie,” Laurel said, kissing him on the cheek. “They don’t really lend to normal couple stuff.”

**_*DC*_ **

The Ninth Circle didn’t make a move that night, and after a sparring session with Laurel, which Oliver used to teach her as much as he could, Oliver had gone out for a patrol, Ted and Rene doing the same in different parts of the Glades. Now, though, Oliver was settling down on his couch with the file in hand to give it a more in-depth look than he had been able to prior to the interview session with Lois. He reflected for a moment on that. While the first session back in Metropolis had focused mostly on his early life and the events surrounding the sinking if the _Gambit_ , including what happened on the life raft, this second session had focused on those first early days on Lian Yu. Talking about Yao Fei and their first meeting had been therapeutic, Oliver decided, even though he had gotten the chance to reconcile with Yao Fei when Lian Yu had brought him and Fyers back during that last mission before the Crisis happened.

Oliver focused his attention on the folder. The articles were all written by the same reporter, Julia Atkins, and Oliver made a mental note to speak to her when he got to Amnesty Bay. All of the articles were from the local newspaper, the _Amnesty Daily_. It honestly read more like folklore than real reporting, but perhaps Oliver had just gotten used to the hard-hitting reporting of Lois and Clark; besides, he could hardly talk. His own profile as Green Arrow read like folklore, hence the constant comparisons to Robin Hood. Even if he had accepted that, yes, he was more or less Robin Hood as far as the List was concerned, it still annoyed him that he was constantly getting that comparison.

As to the reports themselves… there were reports of a man seeming to command a shark to leave after it nearly attacked a couple of swimmers, the whaling ships’ crews reporting that they were attacked from below by something strange, as though the ocean itself was trying to pound their ships into tin, and then there were the gouges from what had to be a trident in some of the hulls of the ships. There were also rumors of oil refineries facing constant bad seas in the shores of Amnesty Bay, though Oliver mused that that could just be coincidence. But the fact that reports from whalers indicated the sea itself attacked them, or something of that nature… If this ‘Aquaman’ existed, he was very powerful and, if all the reports were accurate, committed to the oceans. Considering the oceans covered most of the world and the Justice League was, in the end, meant to protect the world, Oliver felt he had a good chance of convincing this ‘Aquaman’ to join. But why was he so committed to the oceans? Was he a eco-terrorist turned do-gooder? Earth-first type? Naturalist?

Well, whoever he was (if he existed), Aquaman also believed in keeping humanity safe. He had seemingly rescued multiple fishing trawlers caught in storms, intervened when swimmers caught the attention of sharks in the summer, and more. So, while he was committed to the oceans, he was also committed to helping people, which was why Oliver felt he had a good chance of bringing this man onboard.

Oliver finished going over the file around two a.m. He stood, stretching, and made his way to his bedroom. It was time to get some rest; he had some calls to make in the morning. **_*2*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Thea had already had breakfast and was out the door to head to school by the time Oliver woke up, which was just as well. He would need to remind everyone that there was no training tonight since he and Laurel were going to take some time and celebrate his sister’s birthday with her. He would ask Emiko to take Rene and Ted out for patrol and be there in the Quiver if the Encyclopedia went off. Oliver would also need to spend today ‘flipping the switch’ back on for Thea’s accounts, as he had promised her that he would do.

Oliver made himself a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage links, and toast with a glass of orange juice and sat down at the counter, thinking over what he would say to Hal and Clark. He felt that when he found the Aquaman that he should have the other members of the Justice League with him so that they could present a united front and show the Aquaman that the League came from all different walks of life. A normal human, an alien, a space cop, yet all united in the desire to protect the world from those who would do it harm, be they aliens, humans, or something else entirely.

He just wished he wouldn’t have to cut into Clark’s time with his cousin, knowing this must be a hard period of adjustment for the younger version of his friend. The Kara he knew had been a well-put-together adult in her twenties with an enthusiasm for life. This Kara, on the other hand, was skittish and had had to hide behind he and the other two while they fought the twenty Fort Rozz escapees that had decided revenge was the course to take. She was also adjusting to a completely new world and only her cousin being around had given her some semblance of normalcy, and even that was tainted somewhat since the last time she had seen Clark he had been a baby, and now he was an adult who would be taking care of _her_ rather than the other way around.

Oliver finished his breakfast and washed his dishes before snatching up his phone. Might as well get one of the phone calls out of the way. He hit Clark’s contact and held the phone to his ear. “Oliver,” Clark greeted. “I have a feeling I know what this is about. Lois isn’t exactly subtle.”

“I am sorry to pull you away from Kara, Clark, but I could use an extra pair of eyes in looking into this,” Oliver said. “And if it does turn out to be something real, I think having all three of us make the approach, if need be, would be more practical since we have varied backgrounds. I was thinking we would leave from here in Starling tomorrow. I know you can fly yourself, as can Hal, but…”

“No, it makes sense,” Clark said, amused. “And it does make sense to present a united front. I can be in Starling City by this evening since I can, as you put it, fly myself there. Besides, it’ll give me some time with Kara.”

“Of course,” Oliver said. “Family is important, Clark. I understand that. I’ll see you tomorrow morning at the latest.” Oliver said his goodbyes and shut off his phone. He would wait until noon to make the call to Hal. The last he had heard Hal was still trying to convince his old boss to let him have his job as a test pilot back at Ferris Air.

**_*DC*_ **

Thea Queen walked into the apartment, feeling a bit morose. Not one of her old friends (aside from Margo, who had disappeared completely months ago) had even acknowledged her today, or the fact that it was her birthday. She had had to reapply her make-up a couple of times after letting out her feelings in the bathroom, and she was thinking ahead to this evening, where she would have to spend her birthday training in order to keep the League of Assassins from kidnapping her and taking her to their crazy cult headquarters where she would be required to ‘service’ the male members of the League. Thea blinked when she saw the cake sitting on the kitchen counter, and Ollie and Laurel standing beside it, smiling at her. A disbelieving grin grew on her face. “You remembered?” she asked, her voice cracking.

“Of _course,_ I remembered, Speedy,” Oliver said, coming forward and taking her by the shoulders, giving her a quick hug which she melted into before kissing her forehead. “You are one of the most important people in my life.” He pulled away. “Now, I know it’s not much, but we’re taking the evening off for training. I have to leave town tomorrow, which means I want tonight to be about you.”

“Thanks, Ollie,” Thea said thickly, before turning to Laurel, who pulled her into a hug of her own.

“Happy birthday, Thea,” Laurel said, and Oliver watched two of the most important people in his life embrace. While he had his relationship with Emiko and it was slowly becoming important, Thea and Laurel were the most important to him, both in the last timeline and this one. It had hurt him so much more than he had let show when he had given Thea to Tommy to care for, and it had hurt him this past month as Thea rebelled against her lot in life even if she grudgingly went along with the training. Oliver would have to thank Laurel again for forcing him to come clean with Thea about coming back through time, because now his youngest sister understood the reason behind his dramatic change and understood where he was coming from when he looked at her. “Alright,” Laurel said, breaking Oliver out of his thoughts. “Time for the song!”

“No,” Thea said, her face flaming in embarrassment. “I’m not a little kid.”

“You’re always going to be my little Speedy,” Oliver replied smugly, earning an annoyed hazel glare, before he exchanged glances with Laurel, whose green eyes were glittering mischievously.

As one, the two adults began to sing, “Happy birthday to you…” to Thea’s embarrassment but secret pleasure at being the center of attention, even if it was just for one night. **_*3*_**

**_*DC*_ **

The Bentley pulled into the private hangar and stopped just shy of the small gathering waiting outside of the private jet. Oliver, peering out from behind the tinted windows, sighed. “There’s a complication that I don’t need,” he muttered to Laurel.

“What?” she asked, peering around him. Her green eyes widened. “What’s Susan doing here?”

“Susan?” Oliver echoed.

“We go for drinks sometimes,” Laurel said defensively. “I don’t got a lot of friends, Ollie, and she was kind of there for me as well after the whole thing with Hunt. I know she just wanted a story originally, but we got to be friends. It’s why she gave me the heads-up about that whole hot topic segment.”

“I didn’t realize you two had gotten close, is all,” Oliver said. “Um, I hate to ask this, but did you…”

“Yeah, she might be here because of me, now I think about it,” Laurel admitted, shame-faced. “I might’ve mentioned I was gonna be out of town with you and she was curious why. I tried to make it clear this was probably gonna be a wild goose chase.”

“Well, I suppose we’ll have to roll with the punches since I can’t tell the truth about why Lois and Clark are coming,” Oliver said. “Let’s go.” Oliver and Laurel got out of the Bentley and headed around to the trunk, opening it to retrieve their luggage before approaching Hal, Clark, Lois, Susan, and who Oliver assumed was Susan’s cameraman. “Susan, Laurel just told me she let slip about this little trip,” Oliver said. “I should impress on you that it may all be for nothing. Lois and Clark are coming along because Lois is writing a book about my time away and my first two months as Green Arrow.”

“I guess that explains the lack of Jimmy Olsen,” Susan mused. “This is Kenny, my cameraman. And while this might just be a wild goose chase, Oliver, a reporter has as much gut instinct as a cop, and my gut tells me this is gonna be one hell of a story. I’ve looked up Amnesty Bay. Can I assume you’re chasing rumors of ‘the Aquaman’?”

“Yup,” Oliver said. “I assume you’ve already gotten your boss to approve this?” Susan nodded briskly. “Well, I have no reason to disallow it since this is ‘big news’ if it pans out, and we both know Lois and Clark will be reporting for the _Planet_ if something does happen. So, in that case, everyone aboard.”

“I filed the flight plan with the authorities,” Hal said as they boarded. “Found the closest private airfield in Maine to Amnesty Bay. Nice little out of the way place.”

“Good,” Oliver said. “I’ll make sure transport is ready once we’re in the air.”

“Sounds good, boss,” Hal said. For the purposes of this trip, Hal was a private pilot Oliver had hired. It helped that Carol Ferris was still holding out on giving him his job back and he needed the money. Oliver honestly thought it might be a good idea to make Hal’s position permanent if Carol Ferris kept hem-hawing. It would give Hal a good reason to always be around.

The plane took off without issue with Hal at the helm, and Lois and Clark set up across from Oliver and Laurel. “So, Mr. Queen, since we have hours of unoccupied time ahead of us, why don’t we start with another set of interviews? Perhaps we’ll skip ahead to Starling City so we can get Laurel’s thoughts as well?” Lois gave a sidelong glance at Susan. “Wouldn’t want anyone getting the scoop about your time away before my book is out, after all?”

“Oh, don’t worry, Lois, I’m not in the business of stealing stories,” Susan said. “Though I do hope you’ll set aside some time for me, Oliver, so we can talk about recent events in Starling City.”

“Of course,” Oliver said resignedly. God save him from investigative reporters and journalists… **_*4*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* Alright, so considering they had Thea become a bad-ass in months and Laurel one in maybe two months under Nyssa at most depending on how much time there was between the end of 3x20 and Oliver returning to Starling as Al Sah-Him, it is canon that the basic training of the League is quick. So, I figure what makes them deadly and takes a long time is taking that training and adapting it into their own style. 
> 
> *2* All I know of Aquaman comes from “Smallville” and the two DCEU films he’s appeared in in full (JL and Aquaman). One’s more or less an ecoterrorist and the other is a surfer bro, as someone said to me recently. I’m going to try to find the happy balance since this is an Arthur who is already King of Atlantis.
> 
> *3* I needed to pay off Thea’s birthday party, such as it was, to signify the end of Episode 11, and it felt right to put it after Ollie saying family is important. Amnesty Bay will be Episode 12, and I don’t know how many chapters it will take up since it’s another original arc (like the Mob War and other things).
> 
> *4* Ah, Ollie, this is the suffering that comes from being the only publicly-known and recognized hero. You have no fucking private life. It’s all out there, under the microscope.


	17. Amnesty Bay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Well, I got most of the arc done, just the ‘clean-up’ to do now, so I figure I can start posting these chapters now. There’s gonna be six chapters, roughly, in this episode arc, which is replacing the Vertigo episode since Ollie is busy with JL business.

Oliver Queen sighed in nostalgia as he breathed in the air of the coastal town of Amnesty Bay, closing his eyes for a moment and listening to the waves. “This brings back memories,” he told Laurel, who smiled softly at him. They were just getting out of the car they had driven to Amnesty Bay, with Susan Williams and Kenny McCormick, Susan’s cameraman. Hal, Clark, and Lois had taken the second car, which was packed with most of their gear, including (not that anyone knew) Oliver’s Green Arrow suit. While Amnesty Bay seemed to be a pretty sleepy little coastal town, Oliver would rather be overprepared and not need his suit than need it because of something like walking, talking sharks wreaking havoc and not have it. **_*1*_**

“Oh?” Susan asked curiously. Oliver wasn’t fooled. He ignored her probing question and turned towards the office of the motel they had pulled up to. It was the only one in town, according to what they had looked up. Oliver entered the office, and found (unsurprisingly) that the proprietor, an austere-looking woman with graying blonde hair, was gaping at him in shock. Clark, Hal, and Susan had followed him in.

“One room with a double bed, please,” Oliver said, taking out his credit card. The woman numbly rang him up, he swiped the card, and she handed him a room key. He left the office as Clark and Hal obligingly let Susan go first. Oliver went to the car with most of the luggage and grabbed his, Laurel already waiting with hers. He held up the room key. “Let’s see what we’ve got,” he said with a grin, and Laurel shook her head at him. The two headed for the room and Oliver used the key to open it, shoving the door open and holding it open for Laurel to enter. The room was a decent size with a Queen-size mattress, and the two set their luggage down by the closet. “Looks nice and cozy,” Oliver said, pulling Laurel close to him and kissing her. She returned the kiss, finally pulling away when they both needed air. “I’m glad you decided to come with me.”

“To be honest, I needed to get away from Starling and my empty apartment,” Laurel said. “I keep thinking the door’s gonna open and Sara will be there, back from her trip through time.” Laurel wrapped her arms around Oliver’s torso, resting her head on his chest. He reached up and clasped the side of her head comfortingly. “I miss her, Ollie. I know what she’s doing is important, and I have to trust that she’ll make it home safe. But I keep wondering, what if when we dropped her off is the last time that I’ll ever see her? I don’t know if I could handle losing my little sister again, Ollie.”

“You won’t,” Oliver said firmly. “Sara is one of the best-trained fighters that I know, and the last time around, she _flourished_ with the Legends, became the best version of herself. With any luck that’ll happen this time, albeit with her learning a bit more about changing the timeline from Captain Hunter. Sara will be fine, and in a few months, she’ll be back, and she’ll be full of stories she wants to share with you.”

“Thanks, Ollie,” Laurel said, and the two pulled away. “So, it’s almost evening. What’s the plan?”

“We’ll just get dinner at the nearest restaurant for now, start searching for the Aquaman in the morning,” Oliver said.

“You know people are gonna know that’s why you’re here, right?” Laurel asked. “What if some of them are, well, ornery about it?”

“Then I’ll deal with it as it comes,” Oliver said. “If I remember right, there’s a local diner with good ratings. We can get something there.”

“Are we all going to go in a group?” Laurel asked. “Might look like an invasion.”

“We _should_ probably ask Hal, Lois, Clark, Susan, and Kenny what their dinner plans are,” Oliver said reluctantly.

As it turned out, Hal, Susan, and Kenny were all going to order in from the local pizza place, but Clark and Lois joined Oliver and Laurel in heading to Popeye’s Diner. Oliver refrained from making a comment about how cliché that diner name was. “So, Oliver,” Lois said as Oliver pulled the car out of the parking lot of the motel and headed further into town, trusting the GPS had the right path laid out, “what _did_ you mean when you said it brought back memories?”

“Let’s just say it took a while, but I eventually found the smell of the sea air relaxing, at least in the company of friends,” Oliver said. 

“Yao Fei?” Lois asked.

“No. Other friends, who I’ll tell you about in time,” Oliver said. Lois nodded, accepting that Oliver wanted to tell her about everything in chronological order. The drive to the diner was done in companionable silence, which they hadn’t had much of with Susan and Kenny hopping a ride. “But sometimes, when I’m out on patrol in Starling, I’ll go down to the docks, smell the sea air coming off of the ocean, to reminisce about the good times, before everything went to hell.”

“So, how are we going to do this with Susan Williams here?” Clark asked Oliver.

“Easy,” Oliver said. “Lois and Laurel are gonna keep her distracted while you, me, and Hal track down the Aquaman, if he’s real.”

“We can do that,” Lois said after a moment, Laurel nodding in agreement. It made sense, since Susan didn’t know about Clark and Hal, to keep her distracted. “But we might have to do something like get her looking into the rumors about the Aquaman herself to do so. Means we might overlap. And while Clark makes sense, what’s Hal’s excuse for investigating since he can’t say its because he’s a space cop?”

“I actually talked with Hal about that in the cockpit on the way here,” Oliver replied. “He’s going to hit the bar and see what he can dig up being an average Joe. Clark and I will do the more focused investigation and we’ll meet up for lunch to talk about our findings, whatever those are.”

“Do you think he really exists?” Laurel said. “I mean, we’ve _seen_ what Clark can do, so its easy to believe in Superman. But this Aquaman? I don’t know, Ollie. It seems a little too urban legend to be real.”

“Well, people keep saying I’m Robin Hood,” Oliver said, only half-complaining. “Never know what urban legend and folklore is gonna end up turning up something concrete.”

“Well, you were pretty open about what you did, though,” Lois said. “You literally made a debut speech on live television. This Aquaman, if he exists, doesn’t stick around. The few photos of him are too grainy to make out clear details. The witness testimonies are limited and vary from praise to whalers having conniption fits over their wrecked vessels.”

“Well, I did warn you that this could be a wild goose chase,” Oliver said, grinning at Lois in the rearview mirror as he pulled into the parking lot of the diner.

“Just means we’ll have plenty of time to talk about the island,” Lois replied with a shrug. Oliver nodded and cut the engine, the four of them getting out of the rental and entering the diner. Oliver, luckily, didn’t stand out in an ostentatious suit this time, having gone for more casual wear of a thick winter coat, jeans, and snow boots since Maine was pretty well covered. The other three were similarly bundled up. Oliver, Laurel, Clark, and Lois took seats in a booth, and a waitress came over, starting briefly when she recognized Oliver but handing them their menus.

In the end, the choices made were simple. Both Oliver and Laurel chose the clam chowder, Lois a steak, and Clark a hamburger and fries. Both Laurel and Oliver chose water as their drink while Lois added a Diet Coke and Clark a Root Beer, earning an amused grin from Oliver because it seemed like such a farmboy drink. “By the way,” Oliver said as the waitress finished taking their orders, “how’s the spinach here?”

“Very original, Mr. Queen,” the waitress replied dryly. “I’ve only heard _that_ one at least three a week from fortune seekers here to try and find the Aquaman. That why you’re here? Oh, and we don’t _serve_ spinach on its own here.”

Oliver smiled. “Yes, that’s why we’re here, but I won’t ask any questions about that just now,” Oliver said. “Right now, I just plan to have a nice evening with my girlfriend and a couple of friends.” He nodded at Laurel and gestured to Lois and Clark.

“We’ll have your orders out soon,” the waitress promised and headed off.

“So, what do normal couples do?” Oliver asked Lois and Clark. “Our relationship has kind of been filled with Green Arrow business even before I was a public hero. Now it seems like that’s all there is.” Oliver took Laurel’s hand, and she squeezed it gently. “One of the reasons I asked Laurel along was so that we could have some regular stuff in between it all.”

Lois gave Oliver a dry look. “We’ve never been a normal couple, Oliver,” Lois pointed out. “Even more so now.”

“Right,” Oliver said, chagrined. “Sorry.”

“Ollie, I told you before, normal isn’t in the cards for us with the lives we’ve chosen,” Laurel said, squeezing his hand again. “What matters is that we love each other.”

“I know,” Oliver said after a moment. “Sometimes I wish I had never told Tommy the truth. But then, if I hadn’t, things might have played out differently with Merlyn.”

“Things played out as they were meant to play out,” Clark said, clapping a hand on Oliver’s shoulder. “You’ve inspired people to rise up and be more, Oliver. That’s no mean feat. I’m sorry it comes at a personal cost. I wish I could take some of that burden on myself, but…”

“I understand, Clark,” Oliver said. “You have a family to be concerned with now. Speaking of, how’s Kara? Is she adjusting well?”

“She is,” Clark said, a broad smile blossoming as he considered his cheerful chatterbox of a cousin. “She still has nightmares about what happened but being with Lois and I is helping her adjust. And Mom is a treasure. She’s so patient and loving with Kara, the way she and Dad were with me when I was in the position Kara is, learning to control everything. I think being able to talk to me about what happened is helping her the most. She’s such a wonderful person, Oliver. I’m glad she came into my life however it came about.”

“I’m glad for you, Clark,” Oliver said. “Family is important, and we should have as much of it around us as possible. I’m sorry that this is taking you away from Kara, but it should only be a couple of days.” The two couples spent the rest of the time before their food arrived continuing to talk about Kara, Clark and Lois telling Oliver and Laurel about how they intended to enroll Kara at a local high school since they couldn’t afford to send her someplace like Exelsior Preparatory, the premier school of Metropolis and Berlanti Preparatory’s sister school. **_*2*_**

Once they had eaten, the couples returned to their car and began the journey back to the hotel. Only once they were underway did they speak of something else. “Did you see him?” Clark asked Oliver.

“The man who was watching us intently as opposed to the occasional glances the rest of the diners were throwing us?” Oliver returned. “I noticed him.”

“Think that was the Aquaman?” Clark asked while Lois and Laurel exchanged startled glances.

“That or he’s someone who knows something more than the average citizen, at the very least,” Oliver replied. “I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.” Clark nodded, and the journey back to the hotel was done in silence, each thinking of the day ahead tomorrow.

**_*DC*_ **

The visitors to Amnesty Bay woke up at seven a.m. the next morning, suffering as expected from jet lag. For Lois and Clark, it wasn’t so bad since Metropolis was only one time zone away, but for the Starling residents and Hal, it was four a.m. and their bodies were telling them to go back to bed. Oliver and Laurel were silent as they got up for the day, Laurel not in the mood for chit-chat until she had had her coffee, which she wouldn’t get until they got to the diner and ordered breakfast. She gave Oliver a patient smile when he said, “You look beautiful,” after she had combed her hair and applied her make-up. They met the others outside by the cars and piled in, Hal driving the second car with Susan and Kenny in tow.

When they arrived at the diner, they went to a couple of booths. Hal quickly drew Laurel’s ire when he said, “I’d think with the vigilante training you’re getting, you’d move quicker, Miss Lance.”

“Shut. Up,” Laurel hissed out. Hal held up his hands, turned to say something to Susan and Kenny, but stopped when Kenny made a ‘throat slash’ movement while eyeing Susan, who was watching Hal with narrowed eyes. “Tough crowd,” he muttered, only for Susan’s eyes to narrow further. He remained silent until the coffee had arrived and both Laurel and Susan had had their fix before speaking again, and then it was only to order his breakfast.

The group ate in silence, at least until a couple of people who didn’t look like locals cropped up. “Mr. Queen, are you here about the Aquaman?” asked the dark-haired woman eagerly. “Oh, I’m Diana Allers, by the way. Blogger by trade. This is my friend, John Shepard. We’re here hunting the Aquaman.” **_*3*_**

“I see,” Oliver said blandly. “And what is it you intend to _do_ if you find him, Miss Allers?”

“Well, get proof he exists, of course,” Allers replied. “You’re here for him, aren’t you?”

“I’m here _investigating_ the rumors of the Aquaman with a few trusted associates,” Oliver replied. “Whether there is anything to these rumors, we’ll find out.”

“Maybe we can ride along?” Allers asked.

“No,” Oliver replied. “If the Aquaman exists, he’s not going to show himself if I have a bunch of press and bloggers following me about.” He had realized this last night and talked with Hal and Clark. They would now all be conducting separate investigations and meeting up at Popeye’s for lunch to go over their findings. “Good day, Miss Allers.” Allers huffed and left the diner with her friend, who Oliver got the vibe of being former military from. In fact, he was a bit too interested in listening to their conversation. _Waller,_ Oliver thought sourly. Of course, she would have someone investigating the Aquaman. For all Oliver knew, Allers was an A.R.G.U.S. plant, too. As their waitress came back to refill the coffee, he asked, “How long have those two been here?”

“The blogger and the beefcake? A couple of months now, which is unusual for those types,” the waitress said. “Usually, they leave after a week of being stonewalled by everyone around here.”

“Should I expect the same stonewalling?” Oliver asked, even as he mentally concluded that it was incredibly likely both Allers and Shepard were A.R.G.U.S. assets. A.R.G.U.S. had all sorts, as Oliver had learned in later years.

“Depends on if you have the news chicks following you around,” the waitress said, nodding at Susan and Lois, both of whom puffed up at the implied insult. The waitress finished pouring their second cups of coffee and headed back towards the kitchen. Oliver noted the same man from before was watching them. He was tall, muscular, with dark blonde hair and stubble. Could this be his quarry? Could this be the Aquaman? The man turned away after a moment and returned to his breakfast. Perhaps this was the Aquaman, or perhaps this was someone who was upset with the changes wrought on the world by the debut of Green Arrow and the arrival of Superman. It wouldn’t be the first time Oliver faced that; even Quentin Lance expressed a lot of displeasure on that front and worked with Oliver reluctantly. If it were the former, time would tell; if it was the latter, well, Oliver would deal with it as it came.

Oliver and his companions finished breakfast, and then it was time to split up. Lois and Laurel had taken Susan aside and told her that they wanted to see if they could beat ‘the boys’ (meaning Oliver and Clark since Susan had no idea that Hal was going to be investigating Aquaman) to finding something concrete, something that lit the spark in Susan’s heart of hearts, being an investigative reporter in her own right. The women and Kenny piled into one car and left. “I’ll head to the local bar, see if I can’t drum up some info,” Hal said. “You two keep a sharp eye. If this Aquaman is as private as appears, he might take offense to us asking questions.”

“Will do,” Oliver said, Clark nodding. “Clark, why don’t you start things here at the diner, see what you can get from the people inside. I’m going to head down to the docks, see if I can’t find some information out from the people who’ve seen the Aquaman the most.” Clark nodded and headed back inside while Hal started off down the sidewalk, pulling out his cell phone to look up the nearest bar, and Oliver got in the car and began the drive down to the docks. As he drove, Oliver’s mind went to the two things that stood out to him at the diner: the man who had been watching them and the two A.R.G.U.S. assets pretending to be a blogger and her… associate. The latter two were obvious, and Oliver would have to be careful since he knew Waller would have ordered them to latch onto him if and when he showed up due to his tendency to uncover that which people didn’t want uncovered (or shouldn’t be uncovered in the case of the Mirakuru). But who was the man from the diner? Was he also A.R.G.U.S.? C.I.A.? Something else entirely? Aquaman? Oliver didn’t know, and he didn’t like not knowing.

Oliver’s mind kept going back to Allers and Shepard. He was _certain_ they were A.R.G.U.S. Waller liked to keep her eye on interesting people, and the Aquaman certainly qualified there. Worse, if Waller was invested in this, than he was going to have to fight her for Aquaman, and that made Oliver feel dirty just thinking about it. If Aquaman existed, he was a sentient being, no matter what special powers he had. He didn’t deserve to be treated like some prize to be won. Oliver would have to find some way to force Waller to back off, which wouldn’t be pretty. If he didn’t _need_ her like he needed Ra’s, as a potential ally for when the Crisis came, he wouldn’t care. But he needed every ally he could get when the Crisis came.

Oliver pulled the car up to the docks and he cut the engine. He had researched all the names of those who had had encounters with the Aquaman and would ask after each of them. Mostly, he would be looking for the boats associated with Aquaman’s appearances and then talking with the crews. He wasn’t expecting much, to be honest. Even if Aquaman existed and these men had seen him, Oliver was still an outsider and small towns like Amnesty Bay had a thing about outsiders.

**_*DC*_ **

Emiko Queen was sore. Like really sore. Last night had been horrible. Her former employers had taken Oliver leaving as an invitation of sorts; she, Rene, and Ted had been in and out of the Quiver all night, sometimes together, sometimes separately. It appeared that the Ninth Circle had decided Oliver was the only real threat and been waiting for him to leave town on Justice League business to get moving. Last night they had struck out at no less than twenty people, sometimes setting bombs in the basements of apartment buildings. Emiko had been horrified at that one, because there was only _one_ target in the entire building. All of the rest were innocents, and she was reminded again of how the Ninth Circle didn’t particularly care about collateral damage.

So, thanks in large part to the fact that she had been up all night and was incredibly sore, Emiko was dozing in her office and gave a start when her phone rang. She snatched it up. “Emiko Queen,” she said, half-irritated but still reveling in the fact that she could introduce herself as such.

“Miss Queen, this is Dr. Briggs in Q-Core,” said the head of the sub-division that would be focusing on equipping vigilantes (or heroes as the public called them) associated with Oliver or the Justice League. “We’ve finished your special order, if you would like to come down and take a look.”

“I’ll be there soon,” Emiko promised, more alert now. This could only mean her suit was ready, and she honestly wondered what the team in Q-Core had come up with. Deciding there was no time like the present, Emiko stood and left her office, taking the stairs down a level to where Q-Core was currently headquartered. Considering their importance to not only the fight for Starling City but the fact they would be having dealings with the Justice League once it was fully constituted and Oliver had implied there was also a government agency they would be contracting with, Emiko made a mental note to assign them an appropriate workspace when the new Applied Sciences center, which had just begun construction, was finished. The projected completion date was listed as mid-June according to the last report from the construction company.

Emiko entered the office space given to Q-Core to find that Curtis Holt and Cisco Ramon were bickering over something that _looked_ like it might be Rene’s new suit. Based on what she overheard, they were bickering over whether to add the animal from Rene’s jersey to the front of his new outfit. Emiko shook her head before clearing her throat to announce her arrival. The geniuses jumped while Dr. Briggs, who had been focused on designing something on his computer, turned to face her. “Miss Queen, thank you for coming so quickly,” Dr. Briggs said, standing and moving to the table in the center of the room, where a black case was resting. “I think you’ll be very pleased with what we’ve come up with.”

“What _have_ you come up with?” Emiko asked. In response, Dr. Briggs opened the case, displaying her new suit for the first time. Emiko walked up to the table and ran her hands across the top of the uniform. It _felt_ like leather, but just a little firmer, and it had a ‘watery’ texture to it. “What is this? It looks like leather, but…”

“We call it liquid armor,” Dr. Briggs replied. “It’s incredibly flexible and allows for greater mobility, allowing you to strike fast and hard in physical combat while not sacrificing anything of your ranged combat prowess as an archer. It can stop a bullet, blade, or arrow. However, there is a drawback. The liquid armor sacrifices some measure of protection to afford the greater mobility. While it can stand against brief bouts of rapid weapons-fire, it will buckle under sustained fire. Also, unlike the RQ-1141, it cannot take a direct hit from .50 caliber bullet. I assumed Mr. Queen would want his team outfitted for safety but within reason.” **_*4*_**

“I believe that’s the case as well, Dr. Briggs,” Emiko replied. “Oliver and I talked a bit before he left and he said that he doubted you would make something on the level of the RQ-1141, even said he would prefer it that way since he’s always worried about breaking the bowstring due to his enhanced strength with the suit. If this holds up in the field the way you think it will, I suspect Oliver will be retiring the RQ-1141 and having you make him one of these himself.” She closed the case. “You’ve done very well, Dr. Briggs. How are things coming along for Rene and Ted’s upgrades?”

“Very well, Miss Queen,” Dr. Briggs said brightly. “Mr. Ramirez’s will be as flexible, and his mask will be made of a flexible but ablative polymer, while Mr. Grant’s suit and mask will be slightly firmer due to his method of close-quarters combat.”

“Sounds good,” Emiko said, pulling the case from the table and holding it by the handle. “Good day, Dr. Briggs. Mr. Holt. Mr. Ramon.”

“And to you, Miss Queen,” Dr. Briggs replied while Curtis and Cisco gave smiles at being acknowledged. Emiko left Q-Core’s office, musing over how Dante and the Ninth Circle were in for a surprise when they hit her in what they expected to be a weak point in her armor and the suit held up. Because the armor Q-Core had designed was a near-perfect match to her gear from the Ninth Circle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* This is a random reference to the 1990’s animated cartoon “Street Sharks”, which covered the adventures of crime-fighting half-men/half-sharks. I thought it was fitting for the beginning of an ‘episode’ about Aquaman. And yes, I named Susan’s cameraman that for the reasons you suspect. Probably.
> 
> *2* Exelsior Preparatory is the school in “Smallville” which Oliver Queen and Lex Luthor attended.
> 
> *3* Diana Allers is a reporter with the show “Battlespace” in Mass Effect 3 and becomes your official press liaison if you accept her coming aboard the Normandy. John Shepard is the player character of the Mass Effect Trilogy and the commanding officer of the Normandy.
> 
> *4* Liquid armor is something I borrowed from “Arkham Knight” but in this it takes a different form than that one, which had a ceramic plate look whereas in this story it has a leathery one.


	18. The Test

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Because of how some of the chapters for this episode arc are set-up, I’ll be posting two chapters per day for this arc. One in the morning, one in the afternoon/evening.

Oliver Queen had talked to a few fishermen who had seen _something_ when they were saved during bad storms, but none of them would tell him if they had seen the face of the Aquaman, or even confirm that it _was_ the Aquaman who had saved them. For all they knew, they claimed, it could have been Superman. Oliver had pointed out that if it was, Superman would have told him so he didn’t waste time on a wild goose chase. Their answer to that had been to shrug. So, as Oliver approached the last boat that he had memorized the name of from the file, the _Orca_ , he was beginning to feel as though this truly were a wild goose chase. He stopped on the dock. “David Anderson?” Oliver asked. **_*1*_**

The African American man turned around. “Yes. Can I help you somehow, stranger?” he asked.

“I hope so,” Oliver replied. “My name is Oliver Queen-”

“Yes, I know who you are, I was being polite,” Anderson said. “You’re here to ask about Aquaman. You won’t find him the way you’re going about it. He likes his privacy, and he won’t give in just because you keep pestering the locals. That cyber woman and her muscle have been harassing us for months, and he hasn’t shown himself to them. But you’re not like them. You might intrigue him, but he still won’t come to you because of who you are.”

“Then how do I meet him?” Oliver asked.

“By proving yourself to him,” Anderson replied. “You want to meet him then you have to prove that you’re a friend to the ocean. I can help you there.”

“I’m listening,” Oliver said.

“Step aboard, we’ll talk in private,” Anderson said. Oliver boarded the boat and followed Anderson into the cabin, where Anderson shut the doors before gesturing for Oliver to join him by a map of Amnesty Bay and the waters surrounding it. He pointed. “Here. There’s a wide cavern here that whalers operate out of. They net young whales and pull them in there to be harvested. They’re prepared for Aquaman. But you? They might not be prepared for you. I can get you there.”

“I need to get my gear,” Oliver said.

“No gear,” Anderson replied. “We’ve all seen the footage of the mob war in Starling City. Those images made you famous. It also means when you wear it, you’re not taking a risk, and that’s what this is meant to show, that you’ll risk yourself for the sake of the ocean. Plus, I can’t bring you right up to the cavern. You’re gonna have to swim there.”

“I see,” Oliver said. “I assume you want to leave now?”

“Yes,” Anderson replied.

“Then let’s get this over with,” Oliver said. Anderson nodded, satisfied, and the two returned to the deck, where Anderson had Oliver cast off lines while he prepared for departure. Soon, they were underway, and Oliver stood on the deck of the boat, looking back at Amnesty Bay and wondering if he should feel a sense of foreboding, moving away from a coastal town on a boat named the _Orca_. If a great white shark showed up, he was going to blame fate being a bitch. The journey to the cavern took nearly an hour, and by then, it was noon. Hal and Clark would be at the diner, wondering where he was. Maybe even Laurel, Susan, Lois, and Kenny would be there. He hoped Laurel wouldn’t try to convince Hal and Clark to find him. Having super-powered back-up would likely cause him to fail the test and this was likely his only shot.

Anderson dropped anchor. “This is as far as I can take you, you’ll need to swim the rest of the way,” he told Oliver. Oliver pulled off his boots, socks, heavy winter coat, and (after a moment of hesitation) sweater, leaving them in the cabin to keep dry. Clad only in his jeans, he gave Anderson a nod, and then dived into the freezing cold waters of the ocean, which, to be honest, were not as bad as the waters off of Lian Yu had been when he had had to retrieve the satellite images from the _Amazo_. He focused on his breathing and moving forward easily through the water and tried to ignore the pessimistic side of him that said to watch out for sharks because fate was a bitch. It took him a good fifteen minutes to reach the mouth of the cavern. He swam into the cavern, finding a ledge that ran along it. He slowly climbed up the ledge, slowing his approach when he realized there was a man dozing in a chair, standing guard as it were. He moved to the side and then up, allowing him to come up behind the guard.

Oliver approached the guard carefully, and then caught him in a backwards headlock, blocking his air circulation. The man struggled against Oliver, boots kicking against the rocky surface, and then he fell quiet. Oliver picked up the man’s weapon, a harpoon, and moved further into the cavern. He heard the keening mournful note and realized these men already had a whale ready to butcher. He swallowed the lump that formed in his throat at the sound and kept moving forward. Soon, he found himself staring down at the whalers’ camp, which included an underwater pen that held what appeared to be two whales, both giving off that mournful keening note. The reason was obvious; a third whale lay stretched out on the cavern’s rocky surface and was being cut up by the whalers, their two ships docked in front of the cage with a net stretched between them to serve as a gate. Oliver counted his adversaries. There were twenty of them altogether than he could see. Luckily, none of them seemed to be wielding guns, which surprised him. What were the gun laws in Maine again? Was there some reason they didn’t have guns? Or was Aquaman immune to bullets like Superman? No, that didn’t track, because then harpoons wouldn’t hurt him either. Unless there was something different about his physiology.

Oliver moved forward, down the ‘slope’ into the main part of the cavern. Two of the whalers were just ahead, cutting up whale meat into manageable chunks. Oliver rose up behind them and bashed them across the backs of their skulls with his stolen harpoon. They collapsed to the ground, and he hid behind a rock. “Leroy? Derek? You two okay?” a man called out, approaching slowly. Oliver prepared. Then he heard a radio click. “Todd? You there?” Silence. “Todd, this isn’t the time to be sleeping on the job!” the man complained, moving forward, and then stopping, staring at his downed companions. Oliver didn’t waste any time, rising from behind the rock and thrusting the harpoon forward, driving the man off into the water with a scream. He came up sputtering. “No, oh, fuck, no!” he screamed, right before a shark broke the surface and clamped down hard on his torso. Oliver could only watch in wondering disbelief at how many of his private thoughts turned out to come to true as blood bubbled from the man’s mouth before he and the shark disappeared below the surface.

Oliver heard alarmed shouts and men moving forward. He stepped into the light, holding the harpoon as he would a bo staff. The men closest to him stopped and stared. “Y-You’re Oliver Queen,” the closest man squeaked in half-awe, half-terror. “We’re just trying to earn a living.”

“Then get a job on a fishing trawler or at the market or at the gas station,” Oliver replied coldly. “Whaling is illegal. The Aquaman doesn’t stand for this sort of thing and, after seeing you at work, neither do I. You have one chance to get on your ships, drop that net, and get the fuck out of here. Afterwards, it’s a choice of who gets you first, me or Bruce there.” He jerked his thumb at the dark water, where the shark’s fin could be seen. **_*2*_**

The men looked at each other. The idea of fighting Oliver Queen, the man who had taken down a terrorist cabal _all on his own_ , was daunting, but in the end, greed won out and they rushed him. Oliver used his harpoon to block one man’s thrust before delivering a strike with the harpoon edge to the side of his neck, the blade biting in deep. Blood gushed from the wound as Oliver pulled away and delivered a thrust of his own into the stomach of one man, slicing into his gut and then pulling out. He knew what Batman would probably say if he saw this fight, but there were twenty guys and he didn’t have armor. Batman could piss off. Oliver continued to use his harpoon as both weapon and shield, throwing at least five more men off of the landing and into the water, where the shark he had nicknamed Bruce in his head took care of them while Oliver delivered debilitating blows that took the men out of the fight with his harpoon. Eventually, they were all on the ground, bleeding and moaning from ripped muscles and stab wounds in the stomach. None of it immediately fatal, but it could be if left untreated, and it was doubtful they would get medical attention from Amnesty Bay if Oliver’s suspicions about the locals were correct.

“We just wanted to make some good money,” one of the men wept.

“Then you should find ways to earn it legitimately,” Oliver said. “There are always jobs that can be done. But people seem to think they’re above such jobs. A job’s a job.”

“Says a billionaire bastard who’s never had to work to earn his living,” snapped a man with an air of authority. “You sit up there in your tower looking down on everyone and you think you can judge us for doing what it takes to make ends meet?”

“Plenty of people manage to make ends meet without turning to crime,” Oliver replied. “The people of the Glades in Starling are _proof_ of that. Malcolm Merlyn did his best to criminalize the district, but not even half of them were truly criminals because they knew that there was a line that they shouldn’t cross. You crossed that line. I’ll be informing the Coast Guard where you are, so you don’t die miserable deaths. But if I hear about you doing this again, I’ll come back, and this time I’ll come armed and armored with deadly intent. I do not give third chances.” Oliver boarded the nearest ship and cast the net off, removing the ‘gate’ that kept the whales penned in. The young whales surged forward, and it almost looked like ‘Bruce’ was leading them back out to sea, which raised Oliver’s suspicions about just _why_ that shark had been here helping him.

Oliver left the wailing whalers behind and headed back up the natural walkway, towards the cavern opening. He found the man he had knocked out just waking up and delivered a right hook to his temple, knocking him out again. He looked out at the ocean. The whales were already passed the _Orca_ , and he could see not one but two figures standing on the deck. He supposed that meant it was safe for him to swim back. If what he suspected was true, then ‘Bruce’ had been ordered not to eat him. Oliver dived off of the ledge and back into the iron-gray water, surfaced, and began swimming back to shore, ignoring the sting of the salt water in the wounds he had taken. He made it back to the ship in record time, and Anderson offered him a hand up. Oliver found himself face-to-face with the man who had been watching him and the others at the diner. “So, I was right,” Oliver said. “It was you?”

“I wasn’t trying to hide, Oliver Queen,” the man replied. “I wanted to see what you would do. You have not disappointed. My friend told me how you handled those men. I would have killed them myself.”

“Why didn’t you?” Oliver asked. “Something tells me you could have handled those men far quicker than I did.”

“Because I have many responsibilities, and they have only recently begun their operations,” the man replied. “I was going to handle them myself today, but then I saw you last night and realized why you must be here. I spoke with David and asked him to set up this test. You have passed that test.” He held out a hand. “Arthur Curry.” Oliver reached out and gripped his hand firmly as they shook. “Let’s get you inside. David will start us back to Amnesty Bay while we talk.” Arthur turned and led Oliver into the cabin, where the latter dressed back in the clothes he had shed. While the cold didn’t bother him, it was still nice to dress in warm clothes. “You are here to ask me to join the Justice League.”

“I am here to ask you to consider joining us,” Oliver corrected. “I know it is a hefty decision to make. Both Superman and Green Lantern are here with me, and they’re the only other members at the moment. I want to assure you, though, that whatever responsibilities come from joining the Justice League will not interfere with whatever mission you’ve set for yourself here in Amnesty Bay.”

“It is more complicated than you know, Mr. Queen,” Arthur said. “You no doubt wonder at my reported abilities, whether they are accurate or an exaggeration?”

“I’ve seen plenty in my time, even before Superman arrived on the scene, to know that the world is far stranger than it appears,” Oliver said. “It’s why I accepted the president’s offer to form a new team of heroes sponsored by the government. The Justice League is meant to defend the world, not just the U.S., even though the president might believe otherwise, and defend it from threats that are beyond the understanding of most people. So, what is it about you that allows you to, for example, order a shark to observe and aid me while I took on those whalers?”

Arthur grinned. “I had hoped you would catch that,” he praised. “As I said, the answer is complicated. I am only half-human, Mr. Queen.”

“What’s the other half?” Oliver asked without blinking an eye.

“Atlantean,” Arthur replied.

“As in the lost city of Atlantis?” Oliver asked.

“It is not lost to its people,” Arthur said. “And the reason this situation is so complicated, Mr. Queen, is because I am no mere citizen of Atlantis, but it’s king. I am unique among my people in that I can communicate telepathically with all manner of sea life. My responsibilities to Atlantis mean I must split my time between there and the surface world. But unlike some of my people, I dearly wish to see Atlantis and the surface world reunited, and I must admit that your Justice League may be a step in that direction.”

“I can see how that might help,” Oliver admitted. “But it will likely be a slow process, Your Majesty. The world is already reeling in shock at the revelation that Superman is an alien. They still don’t know about the third member of the Justice League, Green Lantern, being an intergalactic cop. Too much, too soon will see a backlash, I fear.”

“And yet, it may yet come before either of us is ready,” Arthur replied. Oliver frowned in confusion. “There is a man called David Hyde, a mercenary who goes by the name Black Manta. He is a virulent enemy of Atlantis and especially of me.” Arthur’s expression turned reflective. “He is the one who saw my father die of a heart attack just before I turned eighteen. I, in turn, hunted down his father, believing that had been who invaded our home. Ever since, we have clashed again and again. He hates our kind and would rather see Atlantis destroyed by the surface than accepted and has tried more than once to expose us. I would much rather Atlantis be exposed at a time of my choosing if it must be exposed, and it is getting harder to hide in this world.”

“I suppose that is true enough,” Oliver replied. “I have media contacts who can help in that regard, when you’re ready.” Arthur inclined his head. “Your Majesty, as I said, the Justice League is intended to protect the entire world. There are threats to this world that few would even wish to acknowledge. We stand on the precipice of a new age, one that will test humanity and all other life on Earth in ways that we can scarcely imagine. The Justice League is about more than fighting against threats. It’s about being symbols of hope, equality, and justice for all life, not just a chosen few sentients. I hope you will at least meet the other members of the team and consider this offer.”

“I will,” Arthur said. “And when we’re in Amnesty Bay, it’s Arthur.”

“And I’m Oliver.”

“Your Majesty,” Anderson said, ducking his head into the cabin, “you have a visitor.” Curious, Arthur and Oliver exited the cabin to find a dolphin bobbing in the water just off of the boat. Oliver stopped and stared at the dolphin as it chittered excitably at Arthur, who listened intently, concentration furrowing his brow.

“There is trouble,” he finally said. He turned to face Oliver. “I will seek you and your comrades out soon, Oliver, but for now, I must return to Atlantis. I trust that you will keep my secret until such a time as I reveal it.”

“I will only say that I was asked to perform a task for the opportunity to meet you and that I did so, nothing more,” Oliver promised. Arthur gave a nod and a smile before diving into the water, the dolphin following him like a sidekick. **_*3*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver stepped off of the _Orca_ onto the docks and was almost instantly ambushed by Diana Allers and her shadow, John Shepard. “Mr. Queen, what took you out into the ocean? Did you meet the Aquaman?”

“No comment, Miss Allers,” Oliver said. “Good day.” He moved passed the disappointed blogger (and likely A.R.G.U.S. agent) and headed up the docks, nodding to some fishermen he recognized from earlier and receiving nods in return. He had a sneaking suspicion they had _all_ known about the test that was going to be presented to him. Oliver reached his car, noting his phone in the driver’s seat had just lit up. He picked it up and winced as he saw he had 23 unread text messages. He scrolled through them. There were five each from Hal and Clark. The other thirteen were from an increasingly worried Laurel, if the spelling errors that dotted the later messages was any indication. He pulled up his contacts and selected Laurel’s before hitting the green call icon and holding the phone to his ear.

“Ollie! Thank God! Where the hell have you been!?” Laurel cried as soon as she picked up, and Oliver winced at the fact her voice sounded like it was about to break.

“I’m sorry, I left my phone in the car because I didn’t want it to drop out of my pocket and go into the ocean,” Oliver said. “I have some news on everything. Tell Clark and Hal to meet me back at the motel.” Softer, he said, “I’m sorry I worried you, Laurel.”

“I thought something happened to you, you don’t have your gear on,” Laurel said. “You’re as vulnerable as anyone else without it.”

“I know,” Oliver said, starting the car. “Listen, I gotta hang up, but I’m heading back to the motel. Meet me there?”

“I’m already here,” Laurel said. “Lois took Susan and Kenny to find something other than the diner to get dinner at. Hal and Clark are here, too.”

“I’ll be there soon,” Oliver said. “I love you.” He hung up after she repeated the phrase back to him and pulled away from the docks. He drove the speed limit, not wanting to draw the ire of local law enforcement and pulled into the motel in front of his room. He got out of the car and entered to find Laurel, Clark, and Hal waiting. Laurel, who had been sitting on the edge of the bed watching the door intently, shot up and ran into Oliver’s arms. “I’m so sorry I disappeared on you,” he said. “All of you,” he added, giving a nod to Clark and Hal, and trying to hide a wince as Laurel’s hug brushed up against one of the cuts made by whalers’ harpoons. He needed to sow at least a couple of them up and he knew she was going to fret about the fact he had been injured.

“What happened?” Clark asked.

“First, I need to get something from my bag,” Oliver said, nodding in the direction of the closet. Laurel reluctantly pulled away and he went to his bag, opening it and pulling out…

‘Why do you need a medical kit?” Laurel asked worriedly.

“I may have gotten cut up a couple of times during a test that the Aquaman put me through via an intermediary,” Oliver said, shedding his winter coat and then his sweater, revealing four gashes on his torso. Laurel’s hand shot to her mouth. “It’s okay, Laurel,” he said reassuringly. “I faced a lot worse than this on the island.”

“I know, I’ve seen the scars, but seeing fresh wounds on you…” Laurel trailed off. “I know I keep saying these are the lives we’ve chosen and I know injuries come with that life, but… I love you, Ollie, and I don’t like seeing you hurt.”

“I’m fine, Laurel,” Oliver repeated. “Just need to patch myself up.”

“Here, I can help,” Hal said. “I’ve got basic field medicine training from my time in the Air Force, just in case I ever crashed and was injured.” Oliver nodded after a moment, handing the case to Hal, who opened it and began cleaning the wounds to see how bad the damage was. Some were superficial cuts that had already dried over, but a couple of deep cuts were still seeping blood, which was trickling down Oliver’s side. “So, what was this test you had to go through?”

“I was asked to deal with some whalers operating out of a cavern about a mile north from here,” Oliver said. “Turns out I didn’t exactly go in alone. When I tossed one of the guys in the water, a great white bit him in half.”

“A shark was helping you?” Clark asked in surprise. Oliver nodded. “I suppose that explains the fact that shark turned away from the couple it was circling in one of the articles,” Clark mused. “So, did you meet him? Did you meet Aquaman?”

“I had to do this in order to earn the meeting,” Oliver said, once more employing his ability to lie with the truth. Clark and Hal nodded this, accepting it, while Laurel was watching him speculatively. She knew how he felt about revealing secrets that weren’t his, so he might have met Aquaman but was keeping it a secret. “I did get a message to him that I wanted him to meet me and the two of you. We’ll see what choice he makes. In the meantime, there’s another concern.”

“What concern?” Laurel asked.

“I’m pretty sure Allers and Shepard work for the same covert intelligence branch I used to work for,” Oliver replied. “The Director likes to keep her eye on _interesting_ people. We’re going to have to do our best not to let them follow us when we meet Aquaman. If we meet him.”

“Well, we have your training, my skills as a Green Lantern, and Clark’s powers of observation,” Hal said, finishing patching Oliver up. “I think we can handle those two.”

“I hope you’re right,” Oliver replied. **_*4*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* The “Orca” is obviously a reference to the movie “Jaws”, while David Anderson is another Mass Effect shout-out, being Shepard’s former commanding officer, mentor, and (especially in fan fiction for the colonist and Earth-born Shepard) father figure.
> 
> *2* Bruce is the name given to the mechanical shark in “Jaws”.
> 
> *3* Writing Oliver and Arthur’s first meeting was interesting since Arthur *is* a monarch and so Oliver had to treat him with some deference, same as he would treat Ra’s since he’s not looking to piss either of them off.
> 
> *4* Laurel is going to be worried about the man she loves no matter how skilled he is, just like Oliver is always going to be worried about Laurel no matter how much of a bad-ass she becomes. Because they love each other and intrinsically want each other to be safe, or as safe as one can be when acting as a vigilante/hero.


	19. The Trench

Oliver Queen and Laurel Lance were enjoying a lie-in since nothing could be done until Aquaman came forward to meet with Oliver, Clark, and Hal when there was a pounding knock on the door. Oliver got out of bed with a sigh and moved to the door, opening it to find the fisherman from yesterday, David Anderson, on the other side. “Mr. Anderson?” he asked.

“Our mutual friend asked me to get a message to you,” Anderson said. “He needs you and the other two down at the docks within the hour, ready for battle. There’s trouble.”

“The trouble that dolphin warned him about yesterday?” Oliver asked.

“Possibly, or it could be some other kind of trouble,” Anderson replied. “Whatever it is, he needs you all down at the docks.” Anderson turned on his heel and returned to a beat-up pick-up, which he got into and drove away. Laurel was getting up and dressing even before Oliver turned around.

“So, sounds like you did meet him yesterday,” Laurel said. “Let me guess. Wasn’t your secret to tell?”

“Yeah,” Oliver replied quietly.

“You really are too noble sometimes, Ollie,” Laurel said, pulling on a pair of black jeans while Oliver sent a quick text off to Hal and Clark before he opened up the case containing the RQ-1141 and his weapons and began suiting up. The two dressed quickly, and Oliver found himself floundering for a moment as he saw Laurel, _his_ Laurel, in black jeans, t-shirt, boots, and Sara’s leather jacket, which she must have gifted to Laurel before leaving with the Legends. It reminded him forcibly of the way Black Siren had often dressed, which of course made him recognize for the umpteenth time that there had been a lot more of Laurel in Black Siren than he had been willing to admit, and he regretted not trying to help her as he had once sworn to do. Well, that was all in the past (or the future), and the Laurel he loved admittedly looked very good in black. She was also an incredibly observant woman, who noticed him staring. “What?” she asked, touching her hair self-consciously. “Do I have bedhead or something?”

“No, you look fine,” Oliver assured her. “I just never realized how good you look in black.”

“I thought it was time to kind of test it out, cuz, you know, Black Canary?” Laurel said with a nervous smile.

“Well, you look great,” Oliver said as he finished putting all of his gear on except his mask, which he picked up and pressed into place. He swung his quiver around his torso, strapping it into place, and picked his bow up out of the case. He went to Laurel and gave her a quick, searing kiss before pulling away. “Whatever this is, promise me you’ll stay safe.”

“You do the same,” Laurel said.

“I guess the lives we’ve chosen don’t really lend to safety,” Oliver said with a sad smile. Laurel shook her head. “Then be as safe as you can while being the woman that I love.” **_*1*_**

“That I can do,” Laurel said, and the two stepped out of the hotel room. Already a crowd had gathered, people stopping their cars in the middle of the street and getting out to stare at the sight of Superman and Green Lantern hovering serenely in the air. Susan Williams and Kenny McCormick were already out and filming the scene, the camera swinging to capture Green Arrow as he stepped into view.

“Glad you two could make it,” Green Arrow said. “The docks, ASAP.”

“Then you’re gonna need a lift,” Superman said congenially, descending to the ground. Green Arrow sighed but stepped forward, wrapping one arm around Superman’s shoulders while Superman’s right arm circled around his torso. “Let’s go,” Superman said to Green Lantern, and the three lifted off, heading for the docks and the beach nearby. They got there quickly and found Aquaman waiting for them, but he wasn’t in civilian gear. Instead he wore a kind of scaled battle armor, the top a deep orange while the gloves, boots, and leggings were all a deep green. What’s more, he was wielding a golden trident which seemed to have an almost ethereal look to it. The three descended, and Green Arrow stepped away from Superman, shaking himself. He needed to get used to this or find a way to fly himself. Jetpack? He shook his head; now wasn’t the time for flights of fancy.

Green Arrow approached Aquaman. “Aquaman, you asked to see us?” Green Arrow asked.

“Yes,” Aquaman replied. “You remember the mercenary I told you about?” This caused Superman and Green Lantern to start and look at Green Arrow, who ignored them as he nodded. “He has awakened the Trench and left a trail for them to follow, leading right back to Amnesty Bay. I cannot spare the army of Atlantis as we are currently having troubles with another kingdom beneath the surface, which means if I am to turn the tide in this battle, I need your aid. You told me that the Justice League stands to fight against all extraordinary threats. I’m trusting you to make good on that.”

“We will,” Green Arrow replied, even as Superman and Green Lantern exchanged looks regarding the revelations coming forth from the mouth of their host. “But what is ‘the Trench’?”

“When Atlantis was on the surface, there were seven kingdoms,” Aquaman replied quickly. “Of those, only three survived the destruction of Atlantis. The Atlanteans, the Xebelians, and the Trench. While the Xebelians look more or less the same as the Atlanteans, the Trench have transformed into what can only be considered to be monsters. They are de-evolved, vicious, and mindless in their destruction. They cannot be reasoned with or bargained with. The only thing one can do is to kill them. It is a shame; they were once an extraordinary people.”

“What kind of armaments do they have?” Green Lantern asked, stepping forward.

“Their teeth are strong enough to rend flesh and bone like those of a shark, and their claws can rend even the strongest steel,” Aquaman replied, looking at Green Arrow’s uniform. Green Arrow grimaced but nodded, appreciating the warning. “They do not use weapons; their very bodies are the only weapon they have ever needed.”

“How many are we talking about?” Superman asked.

“Hundreds,” Aquaman replied grimly. “Perhaps even a thousand.”

“I see,” Superman said, clearly conflicted. Green Arrow understood why. Superman didn’t kill. He hadn’t killed even when they were outnumbered in the Mojave Desert and his young cousin was depending on them and Green Lantern for protection from the criminals whom her mother had sentenced to Fort Rozz. Green Lantern, meanwhile, was looking grim but resigned. As a cop of sorts, he knew that sometimes lethal force was necessary in order to protect the people. Well, Green Arrow decided, as long as the Trenchers Superman took out didn’t get back up, he wasn’t going to force the other hero to do things his way. That wasn’t what the Justice League was about, not in his mind. They all came from different walks of life, all had different methods, but were coming together to protect the people of the world from the things they weren’t ready for.

Unfortunately, Green Arrow realized, that might not matter. A car had just pulled up, and getting out of it was Susan Williams, Kenny McCormick, Lois Lane, and Laurel. “What are you doing here?” he demanded to know, even if he had already realized the answer.

“Superman and Green Lantern show up and then you come out of your motel room armored up,” Susan said as Kenny retrieved the camera from the car and began setting it up, including linking it to the satellite. Apparently, Susan had already planned to go live. “Clearly something big is going on.”

“We can’t guarantee your safety if you remain here,” Aquaman said firmly. “It would be better if you retreated further into the city.”

“Buddy, I’m an investigative reporter, I don’t play it safe when there’s a major story,” Susan said.

“Ditto, but investigative journalist,” Lois said.

“I would rather be back at the motel, but I’m paid to do what Miss Williams tells me to,” Kenny said.

“I’m sure as hell not going to sit in my motel room, waiting on the edge of the bed for Ollie to come back through the door,” Laurel said firmly.

Green Arrow sighed. He should’ve known something like this would happen. His girlfriend was a woman who, in another timeline, had risked her life to save _client files_ so all of those people wouldn’t lose their cases against the wealthy and corrupt, and after everything she had been through in the past three and a half months, it wasn’t surprising that she wanted to stand her ground, be down here even if she wasn’t in the fight itself. That wasn’t who Dinah Laurel Lance was, and he loved her for it as much as it made him frightened for her. “If you’re going to be here, you might as well help out some,” Green Arrow told his girlfriend. “Go to every boat, make sure no one’s onboard, and tell them Aquaman said to get away.” Laurel nodded and started off towards the docks, Lois following behind her. Superman watched his girlfriend go with an equally-resigned expression.

Susan, meanwhile, was on the phone. “Carl, I’m in Amnesty Bay with Oliver Queen, and something big is going down. Superman and Green Lantern just showed up. That’s right, the guy from Coast City. Looks like he’s part of the Justice League. And get this, there actually is an Aquaman of Amnesty Bay. Whatever’s going down is gonna be huge, and I need a live feed going. Kenny’s already got everything set up, you just need to flip the switch. You will? Great!”

Green Arrow sighed again. He turned to look at the others. “We’re not going to get her out of here. Let’s just focus on making sure these Trenchers don’t get passed us.”

“A sound plan,” Aquaman replied. “Green Arrow, I’m thinking you and I should be on the end of either dock, while Superman and Green Lantern give us aerial support and keep the Trenchers, as you call them, from coming up on the beach.” He pointed at the nearby beach.

“I’ll cover the beach,” Superman volunteered.

“That means I’ve got the marina,” Green Lantern said. The alien and the space cop floated off while Green Arrow and Aquaman exchanged grim nods before setting off down the two separate docks. Green Arrow took a moment to put a comforting hand on Laurel’s shoulder as he passed by her before pulling away and heading down to the end of the pier. He nodded at David Anderson, who was walking passed him, looking grim. Apparently, the ageing sea captain knew something of what was coming or had spent long enough on the ocean to know when trouble was coming. Green Arrow stood at the end of the pier, looking across to the other pier and the armored figure of Aquaman.

Meanwhile, back on the docks, the live feed was now active, and Susan was beginning her broadcast. “Good morning, everyone, this is Susan Williams with Channel 52 news, coming to you live from Amnesty Bay, where the _Justice League_ appears to be readying for battle against something coming from the sea. I personally witnessed a brief meeting between Starling City’s Green Arrow, Metropolis’ Superman, Coast City’s Green Lantern, and Amnesty Bay’s own Aquaman in which they briefly strategized how to defeat what Green Arrow has referred to as ‘Trenchers’. Even now, Aquaman and Green Arrow are setting up on the piers while Green Lantern guards the marina and Superman the beach. Meanwhile, the _Daily Planet_ ’s Lois Lane is helping Dinah Laurel Lance, girlfriend of the Green Arrow and head of the City Necessary Resources Initiative in Starling City, evacuate the marina ahead of the arrival of the ‘Trenchers’.”

**_*DC*_ **

Quentin Lance was a man who had always lived his life by a certain set of rules, the most important of which had always been that you didn’t need to go outside of the law to find justice. Yet that very sentiment had been perverted before being thrown out the goddamn window when the President had tasked Oliver Queen, a man Quentin had known since he was eight years old, with assembling a team of so-called _heroes_.

So, when he turned on the television to start his day by watching the news and saw Susan Williams pop up on the screen (a woman who was as in deep with these vigilantes as his daughters and that Lois Lane were), he almost turned it off. Then he heard where she was reporting from. _Amnesty Bay_. _Laurel_ had told him that she was going there with _Oliver_ , getting away for some ‘couple time’, she called it. Quentin sat down numbly on his armchair as Susan’s report rolled out, and he jerked when he heard that not only was Oliver and his band of merry men present and apparently waiting for something to happen, but his _daughter_ was right in the middle of it, too!

Quentin watched the television, transfixed, as the camera moved from the docks where Queen and another armored figure stood and where Laurel could barely be seen going from boat to boat, talking with people, to the air above the marina where a figure in luminescent green hovered to the beach where the familiar form of Superman hung, cape fluttering in the wind coming off of the sea. Quentin watched and waited, wondering what new terror was going to be unleashed upon the world now and once again blaming Oliver Queen for all of the crazy things that had been happening since he came back, not wanting to acknowledge that Oliver had no control over these things because it meant the world had always been unusual and that meant men like Queen would always have been needed.

**_*DC*_ **

Damien Darhk raised his eyebrows when the special report came over the television. It appeared the Justice League were not nearly as secretive as their predecessors, which was just fine by Damien’s standards since it meant he would be able to get the measure of them without having to expend his own resources. He did make a note to have the intelligence division of H.I.V.E. look into Coast City’s Green Lantern and Amnesty Bay’s Aquaman now that they knew they were a threat enough that Queen had brought them onboard to serve in the Justice League.

“Ruve, darling, come here and see this,” he called to his wife, who was helping their daughter with some last-minute homework. Ruve pointed out a couple of things to Nora and then came just as the camera panned to show the entire breadth of the defensive line the Justice League had formed at Amnesty Bay. “I thought you would enjoy this,” Damien said. “It’s not often the news gives us such a graphic look at the world of our enemies.”

“indeed,” Ruve said, dark eyes narrowed in thought as she listened to Susan Williams natter on.

**_*DC*_ **

Slade Wilson had made a habit of tuning into Channel 52 News through a secure link during every regular broadcast and monitoring it remotely for when something of interest popped up. When his system alerted him of an incoming special report from Susan Williams, the woman who was always getting things from Green Arrow and his team and who had been so effusive in her praise of that little bastard, he tuned in as quick as he could, ignoring the weapons he had been cleaning for the moment. He mused to himself that when his vengeance finally came, he would have to think of a special fate for the woman who had turned Oliver into a folk hero. It would need to be long and drawn out, he decided. Fitting for the woman who had helped to draw out his suffering by celebrating the life of the man who had ultimately been responsible for Shado’s death and the destruction of their family.

The news that Coast City’s Green Lantern and Amnesty Bay’s Aquaman were a part of this government-sponsored team of vigilantes that Oliver was assembling had his eye narrowing in thought. He would now need to adjust his plans _again_ to accommodate for each and every one of them, and that meant learning their strengths and weaknesses. Slade rubbed his temple; revenge against Oliver was becoming more and more impossible unless he chose to accept aid from another organization. The League of Assassins was out since Oliver appeared to have a relationship with them if his words to Malcolm Merlyn had been any indication.

Slade’s eye narrowed in thought as he watched the lithe form of Laurel Lance dart from one boat to another. There was another who would have to suffer first before he allowed her to die, if only because she had been the reason Oliver had chosen Sara Lance over Shado. She had to have been. Oliver must have thought in his naïve mind that if he could just restore Laurel’s sister to her, that she would forgive him and take him back. It appeared she had taken him back, somehow, and that simply made her death assured. Anyone who could forgive such a thing clearly had no self-worth and therefore would accept their fate in the end.

**_*DC*_ **

Dante had turned on the news feed, intending to get a feel for how the city was viewing their new band of heroes in the absence of their favored son, Oliver Queen, and was surprised when there was instead a special report out of Amnesty Bay, where their sources had informed him Oliver Queen had gone with quite the entourage: his girlfriend, Laurel Lance; a former Air Force pilot and test pilot for Ferris Air, Hal Jordan; the _Daily Planet_ ’s premier reporters, Lois Lane and Clark Kent; and finally Channel 52’s Susan Williams along with a cameraman, Kenneth McCormick. It was Susan Williams who was airing the special report, and Dante listened with interest.

So, Queen had gone hunting for the Aquaman and apparently found him. He was forming quite the alliance of freaks: an alien, a man who had… unusual powers, and now a man who was almost an urban legend, sounding more like the myth of the merpeople than anything real. The world was changing, quicker than the Ninth Circle would like, and it all centered around Oliver Queen. They needed to _crush_ this confluence of events, halt it in its tracks, and the only way to do that was to remove the lynchpin for all of these changes: Oliver Jonas Queen.

**_*DC*_ **

Emiko Queen had had another tiring night, and all she really wanted to do was go to bed for a couple of hours, but she knew if she fell asleep, she wouldn’t wake up until afternoon. Oliver was able to get away with sleeping in and coming in in the afternoon because everyone knew what _he_ was getting up to every night, but she didn’t have any such luxury. At least the new suit had worked out good; the Ninth Circle agents that she, Ted, and Rene had run into had been shocked when they hit her in a weak point of her old armor and it hadn’t had the effect they were hoping for.

Emiko flipped on both the coffee pot and her television, only to stop as she saw the “Special Bulletin” appear on the screen. She sank to her couch and listened as Susan Williams reported from Amnesty Bay that the Justice League was gearing up for a showdown with _something_ from beneath the ocean’s surface, which would have sounded strange to her ears four months ago despite working for the Ninth Circle in some capacity for over a decade. She shook her head as she heard what her brother’s girlfriend was up to. Of _course_ Laurel was right there in the middle of all of that; that woman was so selfless that it amazed Emiko that someone could be that. Even Oliver had his selfish moments, but it sometimes seemed as if Laurel never had any. But then there were moments where Laurel had worried over Oliver’s safety in the field despite him having the protection of the RQ-1141. That was the only time Emiko really saw Laurel being selfish, and even then, it was more her worrying over Oliver’s safety than how him being hurt or killed might impact her.

Emiko sighed and settled in for the long haul after fetching her coffee. She needed to know what the hell her brother was doing so she could address press concerns when they inevitably came.

**_*DC*_ **

Sam Lane, retired U.S. general and the new Director of the Department of Extranormal Operations, was a creature of habit. Ever since everything that had gone down in Starling City, where a domestic terrorist had planned to unleash a devastating attack on American soil, he had watched Channel 52 News because that channel’s Susan Williams had the inside track with Oliver Queen and Oliver Queen had the inside track on everything strange and unusual. So, when he saw the news that the Justice League had deployed in Amnesty Bay, Maine, Sam knew he needed to mobilize the closest unit from his new command. He found it after searching on his computer.

It was led by a recent transfer from the F.B.I., Alexandra Danvers, who had cited her need to protect her home from the strange and unusual after seeing first-hand that the world was changing when Malcolm Merlyn was unmasked, and Superman revealed himself to the world. He nodded. She would do. He sent the order, telling her to supplement whatever defense the Justice League was mounting with their forces.

Only after he had done all of this did he allow himself the briefest moment of worry for his eldest daughter, who Williams had reported was working with Green Arrow’s girlfriend to evacuate the marina ahead of whatever was coming. But then he shook himself out of it; Lois could take care of herself, always had, and he loved her for it. She had helped him keep Lucy in line after their mother had died and never complained once. Lois was a good soldier and was uniquely qualified to be doing what she was doing. He also had no doubt that Lois would write a fluff piece about Superman and the rest of the Justice League for the _Daily Planet_ and downplay her own heroics. **_*2*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Green Arrow stood a few feet from the edge of the dock, blue eyes narrowing as he focused on the surface of the ocean further out. It was _roiling_ , as though something was seething just beneath the surface. He nocked a basic lethal arrow (he had stocked his quiver with only lethal arrows and explosive arrows in case this recruitment mission turned ugly) and held his bow and arrow loosely, waiting for the first Trencher to poke its ugly head out of the water so he could put an arrow in its eye. He looked across marina at Aquaman, who held his trident ready to strike. He looked up above, at Green Lantern and Superman, who were ready to move at a moment’s notice. He knew that Laurel and Lois were still coaxing people off their boats and worried what would happen if the Trenchers got passed him and the others and into the town. _No, you are going to hold these bastards off,_ he scolded himself. There was no way he was going to let one of these things sneak past him and get to Laurel, who had no protective gear and whose fighting skills wouldn’t be enough to hold off sea monsters with claws and razor-sharp teeth. He could imagine her seeing those teeth and freezing in remembrance of the Huntsman.

Something thumped against the dock, the roiling ocean having come closer while Green Arrow was thinking of holding his ground, no matter what. A clawed hand, if one could call it a hand, latched onto the deck, then another and then the Trencher pulled itself from the ocean. It was tall, a little taller than Green Arrow himself, with black scales and eyes which stared ahead the same way a shark’s was. Lips curled back into a snarl as it set its sights on Green Arrow, who wasted no time in drawing back his bow and firing, his arrow catching the Trencher in the throat, knowing he would run out of arrows before the Trenchers stopped coming, and he made a mental note to ask Q-Core to make him a new quiver, one that could hold a lot more arrows. **_*3*_**

Another Trencher appeared, and Green Arrow waited. More began to appear, shambling forward, and after roughly five had made it into the dock, he fired an explosive arrow, shattering the wood of the dock and throwing the screeching Trenchers into the water, smoke rising from their bodies.

Green Arrow waited, knowing this day was far from over and focusing on making it through, because unlike so many times in the past, he had _something worth living for_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* I wanted to illustrate how Oliver and Laurel are coming to terms with the fact that their lives will never be normal because of the paths they’ve chosen and that admonitions like, “Stay safe” are simply not going to happen.
> 
> *2* This time, I’m trying something new with the reactions since this is a live broadcast and it’ll take a while to get through to the end. Instead of waiting and doing reactions to everything all at once, I’ll be doing short bits of action interspersed with reactions from select characters. I hope everyone enjoyed the reactions I did for this segment. It was, as always, fun getting into so many characters’ heads.
> 
> *3* This is partly-inspired by something Okoriwadsworth does in some of their stories where Oliver has his tech division create something like a 60-arrow quiver. Makes no sense for Oliver to keep going through all the crap he does with, what was it, twenty-four arrows in the quiver and on the flechette on his arm?


	20. Debut

Aquaman twirled his trident, stabbing at the nearest Trencher, rending it’s flesh and cutting three long gouges in its middle, from which leaked blood and viscera as it fell back into the ocean, it’s blood seeping into the water. Aquaman didn’t stop, reversing his grip on the trident and using the bottom tip, which was just as sharp as the tips of the three prongs, to slash open the throat of one of the Trenchers and stab another in the heart. He reversed his grip again before using the power of the trident to call on the ocean itself to be his ally. The sea around them rose up and crashed down on the Trenchers who were massing on the dock, throwing them back into the water, where a school of sharks had arrived at Aquaman’s call. Their screeches could be heard as the sharks tore them apart.

Green Lantern used his willpower to form a giant fishing net, which he used to scoop the Trenchers who tried to slip passed Aquaman and Green Arrow into the marina out of the water before he whirled around and around before dissipating the net when it was aimed high and back out to sea. The Trenchers screeched as flew through the air and became specks in the distance. Green Lantern didn’t wait around, forming a mini-gun with his ring like he had in the Mojave Desert and firing at the Trenchers who had evaded the net and gotten onto the docks behind Aquaman and Green Arrow. He took out one that was closing in on Lois Lane, then two more who were closing in on Laurel Lance, who had frozen in place at the sight of them. Green Lantern then reformed the net, this time scooping up Trenchers and constricting the net, breaking bones and cutting into flesh as he did so before flinging them back out to sea.

Superman landed on the beach and unleashed his Super Breath, freezing the water around the Trenchers as they moved towards the shore. Those caught in the ice screeched in pain while still more Trenchers clambered up onto the ice and tried to make their way to the beach, slipping and sliding but moving forward, nonetheless. Superman fired his Heat Vision at their limbs, searing the flesh and leaving them writhing from third-degree burns. The few that made it to the beach, he delivered knock-out blows to, noting that they took a harder hit than humans did and thus sending them flying back with each punch. Superspeed and superstrength allowed him to be there before the Trenchers made it too far, and both Heat Vision and Super Breath were used liberally to keep most of the Trenchers who came at him from making it to the beach.

Green Arrow fired arrow after arrow, using lethal arrows to take out lone attackers while using explosive arrows to take out multiple attackers at once, noting that those that fell back into the water fell victim to the sharks that he presumed Aquaman had summoned. He made a mental note not to fall in the water with all the blood there; while he was sure the RQ-1141 would hold up against a shark’s maw, he had no desire to die by drowning as a shark dragged him to the depths while trying to tear him apart. That would be… unpleasant. Green Arrow fired another lethal arrow into the eye of one of the Trenchers with enough force to drive it back into the ocean, even as three more clambered up onto the dock. He nocked and fired an explosive arrow, catching the middle Trencher in the gut with it. The arrow detonated, sending three badly burned Trenchers into the water where the sharks took care of them.

Lois Lane had finished evacuating the dock she had been responsible for and was now watching everything from what she felt was a good vantage point, taking in every detail possible. She knew Susan had definitely beat her to the exclusive on this one, being able to livestream the battle to the studio and then the studio showing that livestream to the world, but she could get interviews with every one of the heroes involved and have a well-rounded story off to Perry to be in the morning edition tomorrow. For now, she would focus on the details of each hero’s tactics. She was amazed at the different methods on display, noting that the other three heroes were more willing to deliver a killing blow than Superman was. From Aquaman’s expertise with the trident and seeming ability to call on the ocean itself as a weapon along with commanding sea life to Green Lantern’s use of hard-light constructs to Green Arrow’s expert marksmanship to Superman’s liberal use of his powers in keeping the Trenchers at bay, the Justice League was proving it’s worth in the defense of Amnesty Bay.

Dinah Laurel Lance knew that since she had finished evacuating the dock she should be back up with Susan and Kenny, but she held back from returning to them, crouching behind a boat and watching Green Arrow fight off the creatures he had called Trenchers. It was terrifying, watching him fight these sea monsters, and she inwardly shuddered at their needle-like fangs, reminded awfully of the Huntsman and his words after he had bit a strip of her hand away and eaten it in front of her. Laurel wouldn’t admit it aloud, but a part of the reason she was crouching here watching Green Arrow fight the Trenchers was because she was frightened of attracting the Trenchers’ attention. She had already come close, and Green Lantern had saved her, but now she didn’t want to turn her back on the ocean, afraid that a Trencher would come up behind her and grab her and start _eating_ her before she knew what was happening. If she stayed near Green Arrow, and kept hidden, she would be safe from that. So, she watched and waited for this nightmare to be over, and next time her boyfriend suggested a ‘nice little coastal town’ as a getaway, she was going to remind him of this.

Susan Williams, of course, was in her element as she continued her report. “The Justice League is turning back what appears to be an invasion of sea monsters. Green Lantern is using his hard-light constructs to create nets which he uses to fling the Trenchers back out to sea, Superman is using all of his abilities at close to full power, the Aquaman is using not only a trident but the sea itself as a weapon, and Green Arrow is once more proving his status as one of the top-tier marksmen of the modern age. Meanwhile, both Lois Lane and Laurel Lance have finished evacuating the docks and now appear to be as transfixed by the sight of this battle as many of our viewers no doubt are.” **_*1*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Quentin Lance was transfixed by the sight all right, specifically the sight of his black-clad daughter crouching behind a boat, watching as her boyfriend fought off sea monsters. Quentin was scared out of his mind for his daughter; she had already faced so much horror in her life since Queen came back, from multiple abductions to having a piece of her bitten off and eaten in front of her by a cannibalistic serial killer. _Why do you gotta drag her into your crazy world?_ He raged inside of his head as he stared at the form of the Emerald Archer firing off arrow after arow. _Why!?_

**_*DC*_ **

Thea Queen stared, transfixed, at the television, her coffee mug trembling in her hand as she watched the Justice League battle what Susan Williams said her brother had called Trenchers, whatever that meant. “Ollie, what have you got yourself into?” she whimpered. She had known, intellectually, that the Justice League was formed to fight major threats, but she had figured that meant terrorist cells like Tempest had been or the occasional alien that wasn’t as nice as Superman, not-not _this_.

But Thea also felt a sense of relief, knowing that Ollie wouldn’t require _her_ to join the Justice League and face threats like this. He had made it clear that all she needed to do to keep the League of Assassins off of her back was train and help protect the city as a vigilante, which he had told her was still a ways off for her.

Thea’s mug of coffee finally fell to the floor with a dull _thunk_ , the coffee spilling out onto the hardwood floor, but she ignored it as she stumbled back to the couch and sat down, watching the Justice League battle the Trenchers and wondering what was going to happen now that people knew _why_ the Justice League existed.

**_*DC*_ **

Rene Ramirez sat on the couch, his wife passed out in their bedroom from her latest dose of Vertigo and his daughter still sleeping, and as far as he was concerned, she was going to stay right where she was, because there was no way in hell he was going to let her outside today, not with the crazy shit that had just been dropped in everyone’s laps by the morning news. As he watched the Justice League take on what the news lady called Trenchers, he could finally understand why Oliver Queen had insisted they get suit upgrades on his dime. If this kind of shit was the new normal, than they would _need_ those upgrades just to stay capable of fighting off threats to the city.

One thing was for sure, though. He was never, ever going to let Zoe near the ocean again unless he had a high caliber pistol ready and waiting in case any of those monsters showed up in Orchid Bay.

**_*DC*_ **

Lex Luthor was a creature of habit, and among those habits was watching the news every morning to see what was happening in the world that might affect LuthorCorp or what pursuits the company made. As he watched the battle unfolding in the coastal town of Amnesty Bay between the Justice League and what the news called Trenchers, something he would have to ask Oliver about the next time they spoke unless he clarified it on the news after the battle, Lex realized that he was likely going to be getting a government contract on how to deal with such threats, and his mind began turning over possibilities, watching what the Justice League did and trying to figure out how to recreate that for normal humans to use.

**_*DC*_ **

General Dru-Zod was currently hiding away in what he believed the humans called a ‘crappy apartment’, having taken refuge here after killing the original owner, an odious human who had tried to shoot Zod in the face with one of his primitive firearms. There had been no report of this, no law enforcement come calling, and this led Zod to believe that such things were common in this part of the city he had taken refuge in at the moment. He was currently in the midst of learning all that he could about not only the world he now inhabited but also the powers granted to him under a yellow sun, something that had only been speculated about on Krypton.

Now, as he watched the son of Jor-El use his powers in defense of the humans, he had an idea of what was possible, but he had also studied the son of Jor-El enough to know that Superman, as he called himself, held back, unlike the other three members of this Justice League. Zod had tested the powers he knew about himself on homeless humans, and his own Heat Vision, as Superman called it, was strong enough to leave the victim a charred husk rather than the _burns_ that Superman left. He was strong enough to knock a man’s head from his shoulders with a single swipe, he could freeze a person with the Super Breath, he could hear _everything_ , including the way a person’s heart pumped in their chest or the way bones shifted under a precision punch.

Superman was not the threat, not in the way that the other members of this Justice League were. Zod’s tactical mind assimilated the reports and the shots shown of them, knowing he would need to find ways to counter them, make their strengths obsolete. For now, he would watch and learn the battle tactics of this Justice League. **_*2*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Diana Prince sat with her co-workers at the Louvre in Paris, France, watching the news from America in shock and no amount of wonder. She had heard stories on Themyscira about beings with powers that rivaled the gods, beings who had fought the great evil that wanted nothing more than to consume this world and all life in it, but this was the first evidence she had ever seen in her long life in the outside world that such beings still existed. The Justice League, as they were being called, had been a piece of news that intrigued Diana despite her attempt to remain apathetic towards the world after becoming disillusioned with humanity after Steve Trevor’s death in World War I. As it was, Green Arrow’s rise to prominence had managed to inspire hope in Diana again, and that was why she had taken to helping others again in her old armor, using her skills as a warrior (which she kept sharp because _no_ Amazon would ever be caught unawares, even one separated as she was from Themyscira) to protect people.

But this… this was the sort of threat that she had trained to fight, that _all_ Amazons trained to fight, and she knew the day might come when Oliver Queen came calling to ask her to join his band of heroes. It would be a very tempting offer, Diana thought as she watched the Justice League continue their battle against the creatures known as Trenchers. But would she take it?

**_*DC*_ **

Nanda Parbat had seen many changes in the weeks since Malcolm Merlyn had exposed the League of Assassins on live television. Ra’s al Ghul, after much thought and debate, had decided the time had come to modernize the sanctum of the League so that they were not caught unawares again as they had been when Merlyn had exposed them in his confrontation with Oliver Queen. Luckily, the League had many contacts and the modernization of Nanda Parbat had completed recently, with a select group of Ravens (as the intelligence branch of the League was known) monitoring news feeds from across the globe for any sign of things the League needed to deal with or signs that they had been further exposed. So, when a Raven arrived in the midst of a training duel with Al Zil/The Shadow, the former Thomas Merlyn, Ra’s broke the training session and took Al Zil and Nyssa to the part of the great citadel that had been transformed to monitor the news feeds. There, they watched as the battle unfolded.

Ra’s watched impassively as what had to be deformed Atlanteans rose from the ocean to attack the small town of Amnesty Bay. The League was old enough to remember a time when Atlantis sat on the surface, but they had seen no sign of the ancient empire since it’s apparent destruction. It appeared that they had survived and adapted to their environment, though the presence of the one known as Aquaman suggested there had been a schism in evolution amongst the kingdoms and what was now called the Trench had become nothing more than mindless monsters bent on destruction. The Justice League as it was known was proving its worth, and why it was needed, in this battle over the fate of a small town in North America.

Nyssa al Ghul was watching the display of raw power with awe and not a little fear. She had always believed that the League was the pinnacle of everything, that by shunning modern conveniences they were a much purer society and that there was nothing that could rise up that the League could not challenge. But now, as she watched the Justice League assembled by Oliver Queen fight off what her studies of the League’s history suggested might be deformed Atlanteans, Nyssa could not help but begin to feel a sense of doubt that the League was still able to meet the challenges of the day.

Al Zil, as he was known in this place, was inwardly seething as he watched the news broadcast. As if it weren’t enough that his former friend, the one who had let him be dragged off to this hellhole in the first place, was once again being praised as some kind of hero and had assembled a bunch of freaks to back him up, he had dragged _Laurel_ into it! Al Zil’s eyes remained focused on the small figure in black crouched behind a boat that was what could only be about twenty feet from where Green Arrow was firing off arrows to kill the Trenchers, as he had named them. Laurel was in danger, _again_ , because of Oliver, _again_ , and yet he knew if he were to ever confront her about it, she would say it was _her choice_ , _her life_ , and that he didn’t get a damned say in it. While a part of him told him it was wrong, Al Zil found he preferred the League, where women did as they were told and didn’t try to push beyond their place. If Laurel had chosen _him_ , he could have convinced her to back off of these dangerous things. **_*3*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Back in Amnesty Bay, Superman delivered a straight punch to the gut of one Trencher before delivering an uppercut to the chin of another, ignoring the scraping feeling of their claws against his suit, which held up against it since it was made of Kryptonian fabric and as such couldn’t be torn under a yellow sun. He delivered a frontal kick to another Trencher and fired Heat Vision at the legs of two others, sending them screeching to the ground. Superman reapplied his Super Breath to the ice keeping some of the Trenchers caught, and then blocked an attack by one Trencher before head-butting it, knocking the creature out.

Aquaman stabbed a Trencher with his trident and held him out over the water. A great white shark leaped from the water, mouth closing on the screeching Trencher and dragging it off of the trident and into the depths. The ocean was slick with the blood of the Trenchers, and the sharks Aquaman had summoned were in a feeding frenzy. It would take all of his willpower to send the sharks he had summoned back out into the ocean when all was said and done because the scent of blood was strong in the water and that would have the sharks wanting to remain, to hunt down every potential source of food. Aquaman delivered three quick jabs to the torso of a Trencher, which collapsed to the dock along with others that Aquaman had killed. There were at least twenty bodies piled on the dock and dozens more in the water.

Green Lantern knew his strength was beginning to wane as he formed a series of throwing stars and threw them downward, catching Trenchers who had slipped passed Aquaman and Green Arrow in the heads or backs and sending them keeling back into the water, where Aquaman’s sharks were in a feeding frenzy. Green Lantern hoped that plenty of the Trenchers were falling victim to the sharks beneath the surface, because if not, the battle might come down to Green Arrow, Aquaman, and Superman going toe-to-toe because Green Lantern’s ring would need re-charging soon, and the lantern was all the way back in Coast City because he hadn’t figured he would expend so much energy on a simple recruitment mission that could’ve ended up as a wild goose chase. _Next time, I bring the lantern even if it seems simple,_ he thought grimly as he formed another set of throwing stars. With the sharks now in a feeding frenzy, he couldn’t use the net trick anymore without scooping up what were essentially his allies as well.

Green Arrow was running low on arrows, and he knew it, which was why he was going to have to let the Trenchers get close. He had one lethal arrow and a limited supply of explosive arrows left, and he needed to conserve them, which meant up close combat. He drew the lethal arrow but didn’t nock it, instead holding the middle of the shaft and preparing himself for what would be an ugly confrontation, not knowing he was sending a thrill of terror through the heart of the woman he loved as he stood waiting for the Trenchers to get close, at least until he heard her cry out, “Ollie! What are you doing?”

Green Arrow didn’t have time to answer because the Trenchers were on him. He delivered a forward kick to one at full-strength, letting the enhancements of the RQ-1141 let loose, and the Trencher was thrown into the water, where a shark sank its teeth into the Trencher and pulled it to the depths. Green Arrow jabbed his arrow into the heart of another Trencher, delivered a left hook to the jaw of another, and then jabbed the arrow into the throat of the next one. More Trenchers were already on the way, and he took a moment to draw and fire an explosive arrow into the center of the oncoming group, needing to thin the Trencher numbers before he got overrun. Only the arrow never hit any of them because they actively dodged it, and it landed in the water. It exploded moments later, the explosion muffled and limited in scope by happening underwater.

Green Arrow knew it was hopeless, but he moved forward regardless, using bow and arrow alike in his attacks, knocking a few Trenchers into the water, before the inevitable happened and he was knocked to the ground. The Trenchers swarmed over him, claws ripping into his suit and even scratching his skin. Green Arrow closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable and mentally apologizing to Laurel for failing to come back to her this time.

Laurel Lance had watched as her boyfriend slowly ran out of arrows and decided to change tactics. He hadn’t answered her question of what he was doing, not that she had expected it since he was focused on fighting the Trenchers. Laurel stepped out of hiding as the Trenchers approached and took a few steps forward, itching to help the man she loved but not sure how to do so. Then she saw him fall under the claws of the Trenchers, and something deep inside of her broke as terror, fear, and an overwhelming sense of grief and rage rose up inside of her and, unknown to her, activated the metagene that had lain dormant within her so far in both timelines.

“ _Ollie! **No!**_ ” Laurel screamed out her denial, the final word becoming a straight-out scream, but not an ordinary scream. A high-pitched shriek filled the air, echoing off of the water and around the marina as the sonic wave emitted from Laurel’s opened mouth and struck the Trenchers, ripping them to shreds and sending the remains flying off of her downed boyfriend. Laurel sank to her knees, staring in disbelief as Green Arrow clambered to his feet, his suit torn and a little bloody but _alive_. Green Arrow moved to Laurel and knelt in front of her, staring at her for a moment before reaching out and pulling her into a hug. Laurel hugged him back with a sob. “I thought I’d lost you!” she wept.

“You’ll never lose me,” Green Arrow said. “Never, pretty bird.” He pulled away reluctantly. “What you did, do you think you can do it again?”

“I-I can,” Laurel said shakily. “At least, I think I can.”

“Then get ready to sing, Black Canary,” Green Arrow said, standing and turning to face the Trenchers that were clambering onto the dock, their deadly intent focused on both young heroes now.

Black Canary nodded grimly as she stepped up beside the man that she loved. She had no armor, no gear to defend herself, only her boyfriend’s skill with a bow and limited arrows and her own unique ability that had just manifested, an ability that she didn’t know if she could summon up again. But she had to, because Green Arrow and all of the people of Amnesty Bay were depending on her being able to summon that power again. **_*4*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> The beginning of the next chapter will be focused on the *reactions* across the board to the debut of the Canary Cry.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* I hope how I covered the battle tactics of each member of the Justice League worked out.
> 
> *2* Zod is, of course, underestimating Superman, who (according to a friend) at least *contemplates* using lethal force when it comes to fellow Kryptonians even if he doesn’t go through with it. But it’ll be interesting to see what he decides to do, won’t it?
> 
> *3* Writing this scene was kinda brutal, especially when I wrote Tommy/Al Zil’s perspective and established how warped he has become since being forcibly inducted into the League of Assassins.
> 
> *4* The metagene, according to the Wikipedia article I read on the Invasion! mini-series event (which the Arrowverse butchered as per usual), is activated during a period of great physical or emotional distress. Technically, I should have probably had it happen when the Huntsman attacked her, but I didn’t think to do it. So, I felt the Battle of Amnesty Bay would be the next best place for it to happen, especially if Ollie was in danger.


	21. Victory

Quentin Larry Lance had watched as Green Arrow was overwhelmed by the Trenchers. He barely heard Susan Williams’ dismayed report of, “And it looks like this may be the end for Starling City’s guardian archer,” because his eyes were focused on the slender form of his black-clad daughter racing forward before she screamed out her denial. But it was what happened when she did that caused Quentin to blink. A wave of _something_ seemed to emit from his daughter’s form, blasting apart the Trenchers and ripping them away from his daughter’s downed boyfriend, who rose up from the dock and moved to where Laurel had just collapsed to her knees. “Well,” Susan Williams said, stunned, “It appears that there is more to Laurel Lance than meets the eye, because she just ripped apart the Trenchers with what I can only describe as a sonic scream that has left my ears ringing. And now it appears that she is moving to stand _with_ Green Arrow in defense of Amnesty Bay.”

“No, sweetheart, don’t,” Quentin begged his on-screen daughter. “Don’t do it. Just go back to where the reporter is and stay safe, let him take the risk! Not you! This isn’t you, baby! This isn’t you!” But Quentin knew such words were hollow and more out of denial than anything else because this _was_ his daughter. Her circle of friends and even he and his wife had all teased her about her desire to save the world all on her own, and now she had the ability to do something more. He knew about the training she was getting from Oliver and Sara and Ted Grant, but he had told himself that she was just doing that to make sure she could keep herself safe instead of having to depend on Oliver for rescue.

But now, as he watched his daughter and her boyfriend prepare for another wave of Trenchers, Quentin felt despair grip him because he could no longer deny the truth that his daughter had chosen to follow her boyfriend into his crazy world full throttle, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. Quentin’s head sank into his hands as his world crashed down around him and he prayed, seriously prayed, for the first time in years for his daughter to get out of this safe and unharmed.

**_*DC*_ **

Damien Darhk had had a slow smirk curl his lips when Susan Williams reported the apparent death of the Green Arrow, knowing this would send shockwaves throughout the world and create new opportunities in Starling City that could be taken advantage of, because Green Arrow and his reputation kept crime in Starling rather muted. The smirk vanished however, replaced by a look of shock when the dainty-looking Laurel Lance unleashed a sonic scream that hurt even Damien’s ears through the television and ripped the Trenchers apart, saving the life of her boyfriend and no doubt bolstering the courage of the other members of the Justice League.

“Well, now, I haven’t seen a power like _that_ since I tangled with the Justice Society,” he said, referring to a few empowered individuals who had been a part of the group he tangled with in the thirties through fifties before they disbanded. “It’s one thing for Superman, Green Lantern, and this Aquaman to have powers. Quite another for a seemingly ordinary woman to have them.” Aquaman, Damien was sure, was a descendant of the survivors of Atlantis. He had read about it in the archives when he had been a potential Heir to the Demon back in Nanda Parbat. The Ra’s al Ghul he had served under with the current Ra’s (who had been known as Al Janbiya, the Dagger) had wanted both of them well-educated before he made his decision. But Miss Lance was clearly an ordinary human, not an alien or someone gifted extraordinary powers by an external source, or the descendant of a race now thought to be mythical.

“We’ll have to begin a file on her, since it’s likely she’ll be working with Green Arrow from this point forward,” Ruve said. “What little we know about her indicates she has already been training to do so and she has a drive to ‘save the world’.”

“Ah, the idealistic crusader type,” Darhk said knowledgably. “You know, my dear, it’s always fun to play around with those types. They’re so pious and certain that their way is the way things must be. It’s so _precious_ when you leave them drowning in their own blood. They’re always so afraid in the end, so fearful of the unknown, so angry at suffering the indignation of such an ignominious death. I believe Miss Lance will provide some entertainment value, at the very least, should she join Queen’s little League.”

“I am sure she will,” Ruve said, smiling at her husband and knowing he was going to take an interest in Dinah Laurel Lance simply because she was the lover of the man who had brought the Justice League together and was, by default, a man of equal standing with her husband, Ra’s al Ghul, and Talia al Ghul, a man who shaped the world around him and changed the way people saw the world. Breaking such a man would be a slow process, one her husband would enjoy, and, of course, killing the woman Oliver Queen loved would have to be a part of that process.

“In the meantime, we should see if we can’t figure out a way to give our own people such abilities,” Damien said. “I’ll be sure to have our scientists piggy-back on the research of whoever studies how Miss Lance can do what she does.” **_*1*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Slade Wilson had been stunned when Green Arrow had disappeared under the claws of the Trenchers, only for that surprise to turn to anger. It was _his_ right to kill Oliver Queen, not these creatures’, and he would do so only after breaking Oliver, but that required him to be alive to suffer as Slade took his revenge. Slade’s remaining eye widened as Laurel Lance strode forward, screaming out a denial that became a high-pitched shriek that left his sensitive ears ringing, muted as it was by the volume on the computer he was watching from. He watched as the wave of sonic energy ripped the Trenchers to shreds and Oliver clambered to his feet.

Slade leaned back in his seat as he realized that, whether he wanted to or not, he would need to seek help to get his revenge on Oliver Queen. Not only did his _friend_ have the likes of Superman, Green Lantern, and presumably this Aquaman on his side, but even his girlfriend was enhanced the way Slade was, capable of producing a scream that, were it turned on Slade at its height, would rip even him apart the way those Trenchers had been ripped apart. Slade sighed as he watched Green Arrow and Laurel Lance stand side-by-side to face the next wave of Trenchers. Joining forces with an organization like H.I.V.E. was probably his only option, which meant he would have to operate on someone else’s timetable rather than his own. It was galling, but if he wanted his revenge, he would have to make the sacrifice.

**_*DC*_ **

Thea Queen had given out a cry of denial when she saw her brother go down. “No, no, no!” she screamed, sliding off of the couch and onto her knees, tears spilling from her hazel eyes as she watched the Trenchers seemingly tearing into her brother’s downed form. Now she was utterly and completely alone. Her parents, biological and step, were all dead, her oldest brother was trapped in the League of Assassins, and now the brother she had always chased after as a kid had died in battle. She knew now that Ollie was dead it would only be a matter of time before the League came for her; she would have to run, change her name, become someone completely different to escape them. She gave a sobbing cry of denial when she saw Laurel dart forward, only to freeze in place as Laurel seemed to emit some kind of energy as she screamed, ripping the monsters apart.

Thea gave renewed sobs, this time of relief, as her brother got to his feet and moved to crouch besides the kneeling form of Laurel, only to tense up again when the two didn’t retreat but instead moved to face the Trenchers together. “What are you two doing?” she cried. “Get the hell out of there!”

**_*DC*_ **

Emiko Queen had both hands up over her face even before her brother went down. When he did, she gave a cry of denial. She was numb as she watched the Trenchers seemingly tearing away at him. Emiko knew this meant she would have to step up, because this was what Oliver had prepared for by making her his heir apparent, the day that his duties as Green Arrow and leader of the Justice League got him killed. She stifled a groan as she saw Laurel Lance dash forward, because she liked Laurel, and she didn’t want to see her die. Then her stunned grief turned to absolute shock as Laurel unleashed some kind of sonic scream that ripped the Trenchers to shreds and left Oliver clambering to his feet.

Emiko felt a sense of relief as she watched her brother move to kneel beside Laurel before the two stood up and turned to face the oncoming horde together. She wouldn’t have to take control of the company under a cloud of grief and amid questions of how she would honor her brother’s legacy.

**_*DC*_ **

Al Zil had watched with grim satisfaction as his former friend disappeared under the horde of Trenchers, feeling that Oliver’s chickens had finally come home to roost. He had warned him right from when he had found out that Oliver’s path would lead him to death, that he would get himself and everyone they loved killed in his pursuit of this craziness. Granted, Al Zil had thought it would be mobsters or someone like that who got in a lucky hit. Maybe now Laurel would see how dangerous all of this was and leave it all behind and find some work that wasn’t so dangerous. Al Zil stiffened when he saw Laurel step out from behind the boat and race forward before screaming in denial. When the scream became a sonic wave that ripped the Trenchers apart, Al Zil’s eyes widened, and he stared at the screen in shock.

Laurel? Laurel was a freak like Aquaman apparently was? Like Superman? Like Green Lantern? This had to be Oliver. He had done something to her, exposed her to something that turned her into this. Al Zil seethed in place as he watched Oliver get back up and move to crouch beside Laurel. _She’s only in danger because of you, you arrogant bastard!_ he snarled in his mind. But the thought that _Laurel_ , sweet, gentle Laurel could rip someone, even a mindless creature, apart with her _voice_ was… it was impossible. It had to be a trick or something. That wasn’t really Laurel. Laurel couldn’t be a _freak_.

Ra’s al Ghul watched the footage but also kept an eye on Al Zil, knowing the man’s temperamental nature and strong feelings for both Oliver Queen and Laurel Lance (hatred and lust respectively) would cause him to lash out if it wasn’t channeled appropriately. He would force the boy into a duel to get all of his excess anger out of him and, by so doing, teach him that his anger was a weakness that their enemies would exploit. A new scar, perhaps on the face so that he would always know what his anger had wrought, should be enough.

Nyssa al Ghul was horrified at what a single person could do with their _voice_. Was this not the sort of thing that the League of Assassins was meant to deal with? Then again, the woman had been defending the man she loved and appeared to be standing ready to face the creatures to defend the innocents of Amnesty Bay. She was to be commended, not feared and scorned.

**_*DC*_ **

Frank Bertinelli was watching the news feed with his daughter, Helena, who had recently seen her court case dismissed since the main piece of evidence, the recording tracking her back to her lair, had been thrown out due to the persuasive arguments of Gus Sabatoni. They had been surprised when they saw the Justice League assembled at some coastal city called Amnesty Bay, but when the Trenchers, as Oliver Queen had named them, had risen from the ocean, Frank and Helena had both been struck speechless, watching the scene unfold. When Oliver Queen had vanished under the horde of Trenchers, seemingly meeting his doom, Helena had given a gasp while Frank had internally smirked and realized that this meant it would be back to business as usual soon enough.

He had nearly consolidated his power as the godfather of all crime in Starling City, replacing Malcolm Merlyn, and he intended to initiate the same deal with Commissioner Nudocerdo that Merlyn had orchestrated, which would allow his operations to occur unimpeded. The only wrinkle had been Oliver Queen who had the authority to arrest under his new powers and he wasn’t someone that could be bought off or reasoned with.

But Frank’s elation had vanished when Laurel Lance, of all people, unleashed a _sonic scream_ that ripped the Trenchers apart and saved the life of Oliver Queen, who got to his feet and went to his girlfriend, who had just shot up to be right below him on the list of threats to Frank’s powerbase. He decided then and there that he would do his damn best to make sure he didn’t get on either Oliver’s radar or that of Laurel Lance, which meant making sure there was no chance C.N.R.I. could sue him for something.

Helena, meanwhile, was intrigued. It was obvious, with the way Laurel Lance joined Oliver Queen in standing and facing the next wave of monsters, that the woman was no longer going to be standing in the shadows and she knew the woman was as against crime and corruption as her boyfriend. Helena had been hesitant with the thought of approaching Oliver Queen to align with to take down her father’s criminal empire, but what if, just what if she could convince Laurel Lance to work with her, to end the grip Frank had on the criminal underworld in Starling City?

**_*DC*_ **

Diana Prince watched in shock and no small amount of horror as the first hero of this age disappeared beneath the horde of Trenchers, which she was now certain were de-evolved Atlanteans, a race she had read about in the archives of Themyscira when she was a little girl. She heard cries of dismay from her co-workers, and a couple of the other women started crying. Diana’s heart ached for Laurel Lance as she raced forward in a futile attempt to save the man she loved, knowing her pain after how she had lost Steve in World War I. Her shock and horror vanished into wonder as Laurel unleashed a sonic scream that echoed through the television, causing more than a few people to wince at the pitch the television took. The Trenchers were ripped apart by the scream, and Oliver Queen got to his feet, his armor torn but alive.

Diana watched with a small, wondrous smile as Oliver and Laurel reunited on screen before turning to face the oncoming attack together. She approved of this, not only of Laurel wishing to stand her ground and fight, but also of Oliver for accepting that the woman he loved wished to fight beside him. So many men, even in this century, felt the need to ‘protect’ women, as if they were completely defenseless. It was always nice to see a man who recognized women as equals and fought beside them as such. It was when she saw men like Oliver Queen that Diana had hope for humanity again, despite her mother’s warnings when she was younger. **_*2*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd, and Alfred Pennyworth had tuned in to watch the morning news and had caught the special bulletin when it began airing. They had watched the footage, seen the Justice League in action, and when Oliver Queen disappeared under the claws of what he had called Trenchers according to Susan Williams, each had their own reactions.

Alfred gave a light gasp, knowing he always worried about Masters Bruce, Dick, and Jason being killed despite the advancements made in their suits. When Laurel Lance ran forward, his heart ached for the young woman who had just lost the most important person in her life.

Jason’s eyes were wide as he sat, transfixed by the sight of what would come to be known as the Battle of Amnesty Bay and the Justice League going full-throttle in their endeavors to keep the people safe. Even Superman seemed to be cutting loose, not quite killing but still delivering more punishing blows than he used against human criminals. When Green Arrow disappeared under the claws of the Trenchers, Jason gulped and acknowledged that Bruce had a reason for being a hard-ass who wanted to be prepared for _anything_.

Bruce’s blue eyes were narrowed as he watched the battle, knowing he would watch the feed again later in the Batcave to assess the threat level of each member of the Justice League. He was still considering the offer Oliver had made to him. When he watched Oliver disappear under the claws of the Trenchers, he gave a grim sigh. It appeared he would no longer need to give an answer.

A thought, it turned out, that was premature when Laurel Lance, who Bruce remembered as being a half-frightened woman with her hands bound behind her back, strode forward and unleashed a _sonic scream_ that tore the Trenchers apart and, as it turned out, saved the life of Oliver Queen, who got to his feet and, after a brief exchange with Miss Lance, turned to face the next wave with Miss Lance at his side. Interesting. He was now letting those he loved fight beside him. Either a fool, or he knew something about Miss Lance that Bruce did not.

Regardless, he would now need to start a file on Dinah Laurel Lance and do a deep-dive into her background, find out what kind of person she was. With the terrible power that she possessed, she could become an effective deterrent against crime, or a psychopath like some of those Bruce had tangled with once they had been altered, such as Victor Fries. **_*3*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Sinners & Saints, the Starling City sister-bar to Central City’s Saints & Sinners, was the only bar in the city that was open 24/7 and catered to a relatively rough crowd, almost all of them having had run-ins with the Green Arrow at least once and those few who hadn’t having heard horror stories of how Green Arrow sometimes appeared out of nowhere and just completely wrecked whoever he came across, even when he _didn’t_ have an armored suit. As such, when the news came on showing a battle in Amnesty Bay between the Justice League and a bunch of freaky fish-people, the overwhelming desire amongst the patrons of Sinners & Saints was, “Yeah! Kill him, you scaly bastards!”

When Oliver Queen disappeared from view and was seemingly being ripped to shreds by the Trenchers, a great cheer rose up in the bar and one man, Timothy Pebble, even banged a one hundred dollar bill on the counter and shouted, “This round’s on me!” to great applause. The celebrations turned out to be short-lived, though, as a woman that they all recognized as Green Arrow’s girlfriend and a pain-in-the-ass in her own right, Laurel Lance, strode forward. One man cheered, thinking the bitch who had nearly ruined him was gonna get slaughtered like her boyfriend, only to stare in shock with the rest as the bitch unleashed a sonic scream that had more than a few thugs wincing, and then whimpering when they saw what that scream did to living things.

“That’s it, I’m fuckin’ outta here,” said the man who had cheered. “Green Arrow’s bad enough! I’m not sticking around so that banshee can shred me to bits!” Unknown to him, his words would see more than a few criminals deciding to go to greener pastures, like New York City and Los Angeles, where at least there were no goddamn do-gooding vigilantes mucking things up for good honest criminals like them. **_*5*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Green Arrow and Black Canary were unaware of the impact of what had just happened as they stood side-by-side as more Trenchers climbed up to the dock. Green Arrow had spotted a harpoon and handed it off to Black Canary, saying, “I know Sara showed you how to use a bo staff. Same principle. In case they get too close.” Black Canary had nodded, and now held the harpoon at the ready, focusing her terror, fear, and remembered hatred as she unleashed a second sonic scream. This one was weaker than the original scream, merely throwing the Trenchers off of the dock, but it was enough to get rid of them. As another group clambered onto the dock, Green Arrow fired an explosive arrow, catching one of them in the middle just as it straightened, and then the arrow detonated, sending the smoking and screeching Trenchers into the water, where Aquaman’s fleet of sharks tore them to shreds. “Try aiming a scream at the water, see if it carries the sound and drives them back,” he said.

Black Canary nodded, focusing on the water, and unleashed a sonic scream on the water, this one nearly as powerful as the initial one. The water seemed to froth more, but no Trenchers rose up from the depths. A few moments later, Aquaman was pulling himself up onto the deck. “What did you do?” he asked excitedly. “The Trench are retreating in droves.”

“Black Canary has a sonic scream, just developed, and I told her to aim it at the water, see if that did anything,” Green Arrow said. “Sorry if it hurt the sharks.”

“They are sturdier than you might think, and sonic impulses are something they’re not unused to,” Aquaman replied. “What matters is the Trench are retreating from this point, save the stragglers my sharks are taking care of. But they may mass on Superman’s position. We need to get Black Canary, as you call her, there right away to send a similar scream into the water there, drive them back for good.”

“Perhaps I can be of some help there,” Green Lantern said as he floated down. “I can get her there quicker than running, and we don’t want to risk her by having Aquaman swim her through the frenzy.”

“Agreed,” Green Arrow nodded. He cupped Black Canary’s chin. “Go with him. Be the hero I know you are. Drive these things back to the abyss.”

“I will,” Black Canary responded, and then Green Lantern had encircled her in a green shield, which floated away with him as he flew towards the beach. Green Arrow watched them go, a fond smile on his face.

“She always has wanted to save the world,” he said softly.

“A fine goal for a fine woman,” Aquaman said, standing beside Green Arrow and watching as Green Lantern and Black Canary moved in for a landing on the beach. “Will you ask her to join the Justice League, as well?”

“I don’t know,” Green Arrow replied, even as a sonic scream filled the air again, and he winced as he imagined how Superman’s sensitive hearing was taking that. “I think she would be a fine addition, but I’m biased because she’s my girlfriend and I would love for her to be a part of the League. She’s been training to defend Starling, but maybe she’s meant for something more.” He looked at Aquaman. “What do you think?”

“I think that you should make the offer,” Aquaman replied. “And on the subject of offers, I accept yours. I will join you. You have proven yourself a friend to the ocean and to me, and I will be there when you call.”

“I’m glad, because I don’t think people are going to accept me calling these aliens,” Green Arrow said, nudging a dead Trencher with his boot and ignoring the feeling of blood trickling from the wounds that had been carved into him by the Trenchers’ claws before Black Canary had saved him. “I’m at a loss as to how to explain this, and I _will_ have to explain it. This has been broadcast to the entire country, maybe even the entire world. People are going to want explanations, Arthur.”

“And I shall give it to them,” Aquaman said. “But I do not believe I will do so through the media. You have government contacts, correct?” Green Arrow nodded. “Then I will speak to them, and they can choose what information to disseminate to the populace. As I am King of Atlantis, I can accept no less than your own national leader.”

“Well, I brought means of contacting the President with me in case you were real, so I can get the ball rolling,” Green Arrow said as Superman, his arm wrapped around Black Canary, descended to the dock with Green Lantern. As soon as her feet were on the dock, Black Canary darted to Green Arrow and threw her arms around him. He hugged her right back. “I assume this means we’ve successfully turned away the Trenchers,” he said to Superman, who nodded. Green Arrow smiled and pulled back, cupping Black Canary’s chin and tilting her head up so he could give her a kiss. As he pulled away, he said, “So, you just saved an entire town. How does it feel?”

“I don’t know,” Black Canary replied. “I feel happy to be alive, terrified at what I can do with my voice, but most of all I feel shock. Shock that this happened, shock that I’m alive. Just… shock. Is that normal?”

“Yes,” came the voices of all four men around her.

“Then I guess I’m doing pretty good,” she said with a nervous smile.

“Well, before we go and face Susan, there’s something I need to ask you,” Green Arrow said. “Without your Canary Cry, we wouldn’t have been able to turn back this attack, Laurel. Will you join the Justice League? We could always use a hero with a heart as big as yours.”

Black Canary stared at Green Arrow in shock, but then her expression turned contemplative before she gave Green Arrow a small smile. “What’s that little saying you all tease me with again?” she asked.

Green Arrow smiled. “Dinah Laurel Lance,” he said softly, “always trying to save the world.”

“Hey, if I don’t do it, who will?” she returned her usual response with that same small smile.

“Me, and the rest of the men standing on this dock,” Green Arrow replied. “You’re not alone, pretty bird.”

“It’s why we’re perfectly matched for each other, Ollie,” Black Canary said. “And yes. I’ll join you.”

Green Arrow nodded with a smile. “Good,” he said, before grimacing.

“What?” Black Canary asked.

“Your father is going to _kill_ me,” Green Arrow replied.

Black Canary gave him a smirk. “Don’t worry,” she teased, “I’ll protect you.” **_*6*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* Writing Darhk and Ruve casually planning to learn all they can about Laurel just so that Darhk can kill her makes me feel dirty but it’s how I think they would react to this. And, of course, they would want to be able to give their own people powers, give H.I.V.E. another edge over the League of Assassins.
> 
> *2* I felt Diana would approve of Oliver and Laurel fighting side-by-side, as equals.
> 
> *3* It’s BATMAN. He wouldn’t be Batman if he wasn’t already planning to make a file about the potential threat Laurel/Black Canary poses.
> 
> *5* This particular scene came about because of a discussion in the Lauriver Discord regarding how the common criminal would react to the Green Arrow’s girlfriend getting superpowers.
> 
> *6* The Trench are deep sea denizens who have probably never experienced the frequencies of Black Canary’s sonic scream. As a result, they’re unprepared for this sort of attack. And after that particular display, there was really no other way for this chapter to end than Laurel getting the invite to join the Justice League. With Aquaman also joining, only two more are left until they have a full roster.


	22. Perspectives

Aquaman, Black Canary, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, and Superman walked up the dock and were immediately faced with Susan Williams and Kenny McCormick. “Mr. Queen, what can you tell us about what happened here today?” Susan asked. “Will Miss Lance be joining you and the others in the Justice League?”

“Even I don’t completely understand what happened here today, but Aquaman has promised to make a full report to _appropriate_ individuals,” Green Arrow replied. “And yes, Miss Lance will be joining the Justice League. She will be known as Black Canary, and I want it recorded that if it weren’t for her sonic scream, we might not have been able to drive the Trenchers back to the depths.”

“Yes, the sonic scream,” Susan said turning to Black Canary, who looked a little surprised as becoming the main focus and flushing red as a result. “Miss Lance, what can you tell us about the sonic scream? Have you always had it?”

“No, it just happened when I saw Ollie go down,” Black Canary replied honestly. “I don’t know where it came from or how I got it.”

Susan nodded and turned her attention to another target. “Aquaman, Mr. Queen indicated that you have information on this. Can you give us a sneak peek?”

“No,” Aquaman said firmly. “I will speak first to those who most need to learn this. Once that is done, I am certain the people will be informed by their leaders.”

Susan looked disappointed in the lack of information. She turned her attention back to Green Arrow. “Mr. Queen, is there anything that you can tell us about the attack that happened today?”

“Yes,” Green Arrow replied. “If it weren’t for Black Canary’s Canary Cry, we would still be fighting. She saved Amnesty Bay.” Black Canary flushed red again at Green Arrow’s praise. “I understand your need for information, Susan, but I _am_ bleeding. Perhaps we can postpone any interviews to _after_ I’ve been patched up and the appropriate authorities have arrived and been informed of the situation?” Green Arrow turned to Superman. “Normally I wouldn’t ask, but…”

“I can give you a lift to the hospital,” Superman said genially and the two lifted off moments later.

“Tell Oliver I will return later,” Aquaman told Green Lantern and Black Canary before turning back to the dock and taking a jogging leap into the water.

“I should probably be going,” Green Lantern said and took off before anyone could say a word as Lois Lane walked up.

“They totally left you holding the bag,” Lois said to Laurel, who blinked and then turned to look at Susan, who was looking at her expectantly. “Come on, I’m sure Oliver will want to have a change of clothes considering his armor got shredded. I promise I won’t ask any questions about what happened on the trip back to the hotel or to the hospital.”

“I won’t either,” Susan said after a moment. “I know you’ll give me an interview when you know more.”

“I will,” Laurel promised and headed for the car with Lois while Susan turned to the camera.

“This has been an amazing moment in history,” Susan said to audiences everywhere, “with the Justice League standing against a monumental threat for the first time since its inception and proving it’s worth. By all appearances, the Justice League now number five: Aquaman, Black Canary, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, and Superman. How many more does Oliver Queen wish to recruit before he decides there’s a full roster for his team of government sponsored heroes? We’ll have the answer to this question and more in the days to come. This is Susan Williams, Channel 52 News.” Kenny stopped the feed from transmitting and shut off the camera, after which he and Susan headed for the car. Kenny was just happy to be alive and that those things hadn’t gotten past the Justice League.

**_*DC*_ **

Quentin Lance rubbed his jaw. So, it was official. His little girl was joining Oliver in this craziness, taking the law into her own hands. He had known it was coming, even if he had tried to deny it. If he were honest, he had known it was coming since the day that Laurel had raged at him about the deal between the S.C.P.D. and organized crime in Starling City that had eventually seen her attacked in her own apartment no less than three times. Where he was tempered by age and wanting to keep his family safe, Laurel was young and all fire and passion. She was never going to be happy with just _helping_ Green Arrow as a lawyer. It was why he had fought so ardently against her being involved with the vigilante even before his identity was exposed. He had known she would be drawn to the idea of taking the law into her own hands when she saw it was working for someone else, and on that day, he would lose her forever.

And now he had. Black Canary. The name burned itself into his mind. His daughter, like Oliver, was going to be a public hero. Everyone would know her name, everyone would know that she was authorized to not only prosecute criminals but now also arrest them under her own power. She would never have the anonymity that the other heroes who Oliver had recruited would have. She would _always_ have to be cautious, because anyone looking to hurt Oliver, to give the President and his authorizing the formation of the Justice League a black eye, or even anyone looking to make a name for themselves would target his little girl. She was _never_ going to be safe _ever_ again.

Quentin buried his face in his hands, unable to hold back his tears. He had failed; both his daughters were in the life now; he knew Sara had to be doing something for Queen because he had tried calling her and gotten a message that the number he had dialed was no longer in service. She had cancelled her phone, which meant whatever she was doing, it was secret, and the only one who would send her on a secret mission was Queen, just like when he had sent her to Metropolis to keep Thea safe. That time, she had gotten shot in the stomach for her troubles. What would happen to his youngest this time? What would happen to his oldest now that everyone knew who she was and what she could do? _What was happening to his family? ***1***_

**_*DC*_ **

Al Zil felt nothing but raw hatred for Oliver after he publicly named Laurel as a member of the Justice League and gave her a name: Black Canary. Then the way he had propped her up and given her even more importance by claiming the Justice League wouldn’t have been able to turn the tide without her sonic scream… it would just bolster Laurel, make her get more and more involved with the Justice League and fighting crime as the newly-minted Black Canary. _I’m going to kill you,_ Al Zil swore to himself as he thought of his former friend. _I’m going to kill you. Then she’ll be safe. I’ll_ make _her safe._ That Laurel would never have been safe thanks to _his_ actions in exposing Oliver as Green Arrow in the first place never crossed Al Zil’s mind.

Ra’s al Ghul pulled his daughter and Al Zil away from the feeds now that the Battle of Amnesty Bay was over. Atlantis still existed in some form; this was intriguing news and would have to be recorded in the archives. A watch would have to be set on the Justice League; each of them alone could change the world, and together they were causing sweeping changes to be made. One of the many reasons the League was being forced to modernize was because of the changes wrought on the world by the actions of Oliver Queen. But for now, he would have to re-focus Al Zil on his training; he could not be sent out into the world without the proper mindset and right now, he remained his father’s son: too angry and bitter to be of use. If he did not learn control, Ra’s would be forced to kill him, because he would not make the same mistake twice. He would not send a man as angry and bitter as Al Zil, as his father Al Sa-Her had been before him, out into the world with the training of the League at his disposal. It was why Ra’s had decided to personally oversee Al Zil’s training. His father’s trainer, Al-Owal, had failed to see the conflict in Al Sa-Her. This time, Ra’s would make sure that a sickness did not lay in the bloodline. If it did… Then the bloodline would have to be purged, regardless of Oliver Queen’s attempts to persuade Ra’s otherwise.

Nyssa al Ghul was contemplative. The things she had witnessed in the past half hour as the Justice League fought the Battle of Amnesty Bay had given her a great deal to consider. She had always taken pride in her status as Heir to the Demon, but if she were honest with herself, she knew her skill level was not at the same as that of Oliver Queen, a fact which gnawed at her. Yet how was she supposed to improve? None in the League were willing to fight her honestly, instead trying to curry favor with her father by sparing her the indignity of losing a match. But it was possible Al Zil could be talked into giving her a fair fight. They both wished to exceed Oliver Queen, after all. Yes, she would speak to Al Zil when she had the chance. Because there was simply no possibility that she would continue to allow an _outsider_ like Oliver Queen to be better than she, the Heir to the Demon! **_*2*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Thea Queen sagged in relief as she watched her brother be taken to the hospital by Superman and Laurel was clearly safe, as well. That had been absolutely terrifying, seeing her brother and her friend facing off against that horde of fish-people. But now it was over, and Thea could breathe easier. But how many more battles like this would happen? How many more times would Ollie and now Laurel be in this level of danger as members of the Justice League?

Thea didn’t know if she could do it. She didn’t know if she could keep watching her brother ride off into danger, even with Laurel at his side now. She might be able to do the vigilante thing, especially since she knew from Ollie that she had become one hell of a good one in the future, but she didn’t know if she could always be around Ollie and Laurel with them being in danger like this. Thea didn’t know if she could take it. But any decision about that would have to come _after_ she had completed her training and was actually a vigilante. Also, she was pretty sure she was only allowed to do so if she was working under Ollie here in Starling. If she tried it elsewhere, she would be hunted as a criminal, just like Ollie had been for those first two months.

So, how did she reconcile everything? How did she find a way to live with the danger that her brother and friend/somewhat surrogate sister/mother figure were going to be in every time they fought with the Justice League?

**_*DC*_ **

Emiko Queen sighed in relief as the broadcast ended with Oliver safe, if injured and in need of medical treatment. She had a feeling Queen Consolidated was going to see a bump in stock thanks to the fact that their C.E.O. was the leader of the Justice League and had just pulled off one hell of a defensive action with the rest of his allies. She would also have to field questions like, “What will Mr. Queen do now that his armor has been destroyed?” So many questions she would have to issue a ‘no comment’ to.

In the meantime, she had a busy day to get ready for and she still hadn’t had her coffee.

**_*DC*_ **

Diana Prince smiled while her co-workers cheered at the news that the Justice League had turned back the deformed Atlanteans labeled as ‘Trenchers’ by Oliver Queen. She could only assume this was in reference to the Mariana Trench or some unknown region that only Atlantis as it stood was aware of. But Diana’s smile wasn’t just at a victory well-deserved. It was also at the recognition bestowed on Laurel Lance by her having been asked to join the Justice League. It proved that Oliver Queen was not focused only on male heroes, though Diana understood why that was. There weren’t many female heroes in the world as of yet. Vigilantism, as some would call it, was predominantly done by men.

Yet Oliver Queen had brought the woman he loved to stand beside him in the end, had invited her to join the Justice League, and even admitted that without her sonic scream the battle would still be ongoing. Diana would have to consider carefully whether she would accept an invitation to join the Justice League if it was extended. At least she knew, based on how Oliver had acted regarding Laurel, that she would be treated as an equal. Because she would not accept being considered a subordinate.

**_*DC*_ **

Helena Bertinelli was contemplative as she returned to her bedroom to finish getting ready for the day, her mind occupied by Laurel Lance. The other woman was now going to remain a prominent figure, being a public hero like her boyfriend, at least for the time being. Helena would need to wait and bide her time in approaching Laurel for aid in training and in bringing down her father’s criminal empire. Helena knew that what she was facing would go easier if she had a partner, and if that meant she had to wait a few months until things cooled down and Laurel Lance was able to move about without being constantly in the public eye, well, she could do that. Of course, that didn’t mean she couldn’t find a way to begin touching base with the woman. She could even frame it to her father as having someone ‘on the inside’, which he would approve of.

Of course, there was that pesky little fact that Laurel Lance might not like her having gotten off for killing that Bratva thug. Then again, after what she had been through at the hands of the Bratva, including seeing her sister get shot if what they had heard from their contacts in the S.C.P.D. was correct (their contacts having heard Quentin Lance snarling over the fact), then it might be that Laurel wouldn’t be too irritated by the whole ‘dead Bratva thug’ thing.

**_*DC*_ **

General Dru-Zod leaned back in his chair, expression contemplative. The Justice League was not to be underestimated, it appeared, and now they numbered five. Five people had turned the tide of a battle the likes of which he hadn’t seen since the Battle of Kandor years ago, when he had still been a Major. Such a thing could not be ignored by any means. Even though the sonic scream of Laurel Lance had been the deciding factor in this battle, Zod firmly believed the Justice League would have finished the battle with a victory, albeit with the loss of Oliver Queen. Five people against an army. The odds startled Zod as he contemplated them. He needed to find a way to limit their abilities. He would need to find a way to test each of them, learn their limitations, before he launched his campaign to conquer Earth.

Aquaman, at least, he already knew the weaknesses of, and Superman had revealed the weaknesses of their own kind. Aquaman’s powers were most useful near large bodies of water. If he were to draw the Justice League into a fateful confrontation, it would have to be done in a land-locked city to limit the scope of Aquaman’s abilities to just his super-human strength and agility and his skill with the trident. A land-locked city such as Metropolis, which Superman stood guard over. Yes, that would be a suitable place to crush the Justice League, the son of Jor-El, and begin establishing his dominion over this world. Each and every human and alien living on this backwater would kneel before Zod.

**_*DC*_ **

Lex Luthor leaned back, his eyes going to the clock. The Justice League had waged a thirty-minute battle against an army from the Earth’s oceans. Lex’s mind went to the myths of the lost city of Atlantis and he wondered if there was some truth to those myths. Well, whether there was or not, he had the answer to what would be a very lucrative military contract. Sonic waves drove these creatures back, as evidenced by their retreat from Laurel Lance’s impressive sonic scream. He wondered if he could talk her into letting them measure her scream so that they could use the appropriate pitch to create the technology. He would ask, through Oliver, if that were a possibility. If not, he could always come up with some other way to get the right pitch, such as measuring it through the television broadcast.

Well, he knew that the press would be swarming, wanting to get the opinions of the smartest man in the world. He would need to have one hell of a statement prepared. **_*4*_**

**_*DC*_ **

The crew of the _Waverider_ was silent. Gideon had alerted them to a broadcast from 2013 that may be of interest to them and they had gathered in the library to watch it. Now, they were completely stunned as the broadcast showing the Battle of Amnesty Bay ended.

Rip Hunter had known the timeline had changed because of everything that had happened, but he hadn’t realized it had changed this much. Or was this the Council’s work, manipulating events in the new timeline so that it would eventually lead to the one they desired, where Savage reigned supreme? He would have to consult with Gideon in private later, determine where the timeline had changed to see this event happen. He knew it wasn’t one they could change, it was simply too big, and would have more repercussions than the immediate effects felt in 2013.

Sara Lance had watched in horror as Oliver fought an invasion from the sea with the other members of the Justice League, terror gripping her heart when she realized her sister was watching Oliver’s battle from close by, unwilling to leave the man she loved behind to face the Trenchers alone. When Ollie had fallen, Sara had let out a cry of denial, and then she had stared in wonder as her _sister_ unleashed a sonic scream that had ripped those things to shreds. She knew her sister; she knew once she came down from this, she would realize she had killed living beings with her voice and freak out. She wished she could be there to help Ollie talk Laurel down from this, but she would just have to hope Ollie would be enough. She would also have to hope her father didn’t react as badly to Laurel as he had Superman and Green Lantern. But one thing Sara knew above all else was that she was proud of her sister. She had been scared shitless when she saw her run forward, but proud nonetheless that she had helped to drive back an army.

Dick Grayson had stared in awe at the Justice League fighting against a veritable army to defend the coastal town of Amnesty Bay from these Trenchers. Once they were back in their own time, after the defeat of Vandal Savage and the Council of Time Masters, he would be approaching Oliver Queen to ask about joining the Justice League. That was the kind of stuff he wanted to do.

Barry Allen’s mind had flashed to the legends of Atlantis. Was it possible these were Atlanteans or some derivative of the same, or just a highly-evolved society of fish-people who had survived in the darkest depths of the ocean and been drawn to Amnesty Bay for some reason? He had been amazed at the fact that the sea itself seemed to respond to the Aquaman, including what looked like a school of sharks helping to fight underwater while the Justice League fought above the surface.

Mari McCabe was a little humbled by what they had just witnessed. She had been fighting street crime in Detroit, then been recruited to this mission. But both felt small in comparison to what the Justice League was doing. Mari asked herself if that was something that she could do, a fight she could wage with her totem. She would be asking herself that question for some time to come.

Carter and Kendra were both impressed that five people had turned back an army. The Justice League would have won in the end even without the surprise weapon of Laurel Lance’s sonic scream, but considering what had precipitated said scream, it probably would have been at the cost of Oliver Queen’s life, and that would have shattered the fledgling Justice League in its infancy. Both wondered if their foes, the Council of Time Masters, had done that or if there was some other force at work, manipulating the timeline in their favor. If there was, they would have to be watchful for it. In the meantime, they wished the successors to the legacy of the Justice Society of America all the luck they would need to carry on that legacy. As it was, they were off to a great start.

Dr. Nate Heywood was amazed. History was happening back in 2013 and while he was pleased to be on this mission, traveling through time and helping to scupper the plans of the Council and Vandal Savage (they had already stopped Savage from selling a nuclear weapon to a despot during a trip to the 1970s), he somewhat yearned to be there, chronicling the rise of the successors to the team that his grandfather had been a member of. He supposed that, in some ways, that was what Lois Lane was doing with her book on Oliver Queen’s five years away and his two months fighting Tempest. There was actually a copy of said book here in the _Waverider’s_ library, which all of them had read to get a better understanding of the man who had pitched this mission to them. As a result, all of them had been more than a little humbled that a man who had gone through the hell Oliver Queen had had asked _them_ to travel through time and stop an immortal tyrant. The only one with a comparable history was Sara.

Suffice to say, after seeing all of what had happened in Amnesty Bay, everyone on the crew responded in the affirmative to Rip’s question of, “Anyone else feel the need for a drink?” **_*5*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver Queen was sitting passively on the hospital bed, which had red stains from where his blood had dripped onto it, while the doctor cleaned his wounds and stitched him up, his attention focused on the top part of the armor that had served him well in the mob war and the crime wave that followed Malcolm’s death. It had had a good run, he supposed, and he knew that whatever Q-Core developed for him now that he needed something new would be sturdy and keep him safe. He knew they were experimenting with something new to make Emiko’s suit, and he found himself happy that he had such brilliant minds as Curtis and Cisco working in Q-Core with Dr. Briggs.

It was certainly a relief knowing some of the best minds he had ever known for suit and weapon upgrades were at hand. That would be useful, for both himself and the Justice League, without risking either Cisco or Curtis going into the field. Cisco because he wouldn’t be needed until he was a metahuman, and, well, Oliver had no intention of ever fielding Curtis. Maybe in another life, Curtis would’ve been a fine vigilante, but in the end, he had retired from the vigilante life because it wasn’t for him, and Oliver respected that.

Movement off to the side pulled him from his thoughts and he smiled at Laurel, who had a bag of clothes in one hand. “Hey,” he said softly. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“Yes, I did,” Laurel replied, green eyes moistening slightly as she took in Oliver’s torso, which had several long, deep cuts in it. “Oh, Ollie…”

“It’s okay, Laurel, it’s not like I haven’t dealt with things like this before, and at least this time, I have access to medical care,” Oliver said. “You should’ve seen what happened my fourth year away. I had to get some documents from a sunken ship and had a run-in with a shark. That thing was ugly as hell. But apparently, I didn’t taste good and got away.”

“That’s _not_ making me feel better, Ollie,” Laurel said, folding her arms across the chest. “I know what we do is dangerous, but I don’t like seeing you like this.”

“And I don’t like the _idea_ of seeing you like this,” Oliver returned. “But as you said… the lives we’ve chosen don’t really lend to normal things like wanting each other to be safe. All we can settle for is healthy.”

“You are certainly that, Mr. Queen, though how with the amount of scarring you have, I don’t know,” the doctor said as he continued stitching Oliver up.

“I had something worth living for,” Oliver said, his blue eyes catching Laurel’s green ones and holding them. The world dropped away for the two of them for a moment, and it was just them. Then the doctor poked Oliver again with the needle as he continued stitching, and Oliver looked away. Laurel gave a soft smile, taking a seat on a chair just off to the side and watching the man she loved be stitched up. As he had said, these were the lives they had chosen, and they would have to deal with all that came with it. That included being there for each other when they were being patched up. “So, did Susan interrogate you too much after we left?”

“No, Lois stepped in, and Susan knows I’ll talk to her when I know more about what _this_ is,” Laurel replied, touching her throat. Her eyes narrowed when she saw something flicker in Oliver’s eyes. “You know something?”

“Not here,” Oliver said. “Has to do with what I told you the night my old teacher showed up.”

“Okay,” Laurel said. “Just so long as you can tell me.”

“I will,” Oliver promised. “Have you called your Dad? He’s going to be worried even though he probably saw the whole thing. Maybe _especially_ because he saw the whole thing.”

“No, I haven’t,” Laurel admitted. “I really don’t want to know how he’s going to react, Ollie. I’m worried… I’m worried he’ll think I’m some sort of freak.”

“Don’t call yourself that,” Oliver said sharply. “You are _not_ a freak, Laurel. You’re _gifted_ , and I’ll help you find out how to control this new power of yours, I promise. Everything can be trained and controlled. If there’s one thing my life has taught me, it’s that. And you should call your father. Quentin will want to hear your voice, _know_ that you’re safe. And he’s your father. He’s not going to think you’re a freak. He’s going to be scared as hell for you because you’re gonna be just like me. You’re gonna be a public hero. Everyone will know who you are because of the Battle of Amnesty Bay. I only wear a mask because I’m so used to it. In truth, I shouldn’t wear one because it’s a useless trinket at the moment, even if Q-Core is looking into designing one that helps me track my targets and the like.”

“A mask might also be narrowing your field of vision,” said the doctor as he continued stitching. “I would think that would be important.”

“It is,” Oliver admitted. “I guess I’ve gotten used to it. But you’re right. My field of vision is better without a mask.” He glanced down at the twisted remains of his armor. “Guess the RQ-1141 isn’t the only thing that’s getting retired.”

“So, what will you do now?” Laurel asked.

“Go back to the original until Q-Core can come up with something new,” Oliver replied. “I’m sure they will. I have faith in them.”

The two settled into a companionable silence as the doctor continued to stitch Oliver up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* I feel really bad for Quentin. All he’s ever wanted to do is protect his family, and now look at it: his wife has done something his eldest can’t forgive and both of his daughters are vigilantes, one of them off on a secret mission while the other is now a public hero alongside her boyfriend. Everything is falling apart in Quentin’s world.
> 
> *2* Tommy is more or less being set up to be an enemy to both Oliver and Laurel, which was the original plan before Colin Donnell’s infectious nature (not to mention their obsession with Barrowman) kept the Arrow writers from turning him evil. Seeing as Ra’s released Sara from the League simply because her soul was divided (Legends), I can see him doing the same with Malcolm, who would have still been focused on avenging his wife’s death. As for the bit about Nyssa, it is *canon* that every time they fought, Oliver came out on top, even before he had training from Ra’s. Nyssa takes great pride in being Heir to the Demon but doesn’t seem to have the skills. I’m assuming that’s because no one will give her a fair match out of fear of her father (or currying favor with him). It’s that, or sheer arrogance on her part.
> 
> *3* Yep, I’m beginning to set the stage for the Birds of Prey subplot, but I will warn readers now that that probably won’t become prominent until Volume III. There’s just too much already going on in this volume to do it justice. There’s still plenty of room in Volume III since I only have the main plot in mind, and even that’s in its early stages.
> 
> *4* I thought these last two reactions were classic Zod and Lex. That’s what I was trying to capture, at least.
> 
> *5* The Legends were sort of a last-minute addition to the reactions set, so I hope they were all at least amusing.


	23. Aftermath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I’ve hit a bit of writer’s block while working on the next episode arc. Gonna take a little bit. So, this’ll be the last update for a little while. Barring an extreme case of writer’s block, I’m sure there’ll be more within a week.

Oliver Queen and Laurel Lance returned to their motel courtesy of a taxi (the driver of which told them it was on the house, but Oliver still gave him a twenty) to find something of a stand-off going on. Diana Allers and John Shepard were standing on one side of his motel room door while Alex Danvers and a black ops unit with D.E.O. patches were standing on the other. Susan, Kenny, Hal, Lois, and Clark were being held back from the area by more D.E.O. soldiers. “Well, this is an interesting twist,” Oliver said calmly. “I’m afraid the D.E.O. and A.R.G.U.S. will have to wait. Before I do anything else, I have to speak with the president.”

“Understood,” Alex said tightly, giving Oliver a short nod before resuming her staring contest with the now-exposed A.R.G.U.S. agents. Oliver sighed. At least those two weren’t trying to pretend to be a blogger and her beefcake boyfriend anymore.

He turned to Laurel. “Go join the others. I’m afraid this’ll probably be sensitive, and this bunch aren’t going to let you hear it anyways.”

“Okay,” Laurel said, kissing him before heading for the others. Oliver noted, with both amusement and anger, that the D.E.O. parted ways rather quickly when she came towards them. He wondered if it was out of respect for what she had done or _fear_ of the same. He hoped it was the former, but suspected it was the latter. Oliver turned and entered his motel room, shutting the door behind him, and moving to the case where his government-encrypted phone rested. This was going to be one hell of a phone call. He opened up the case, took out the phone and the same device he had used to block surveillance in Metropolis when speaking to Superman at his hotel room, and activated the latter before hitting the speed dial on the former.

“Mr. Queen,” the President said by way of greeting.

“Mr. President,” Oliver returned the greeting. “I apologize for my tardiness in reporting to you, sir. I needed to treat the injuries I sustained in the battle.”

“Of course, I understand,” President Trumbull said. “What can you tell me about this incident, Mr. Queen?”

“It is going to be a little unbelievable, sir,” Oliver forewarned.

“Mr. Queen, there is an _alien_ flying around saving people and I just watched your girlfriend drive back an army of monsters with her _voice_ ,” President Trumbull said dryly. “I _think_ I can believe just about anything right now.”

“As I’m sure you’ve guessed, those weren’t aliens, but denizens of the sea,” Oliver began. “They’re from a kingdom called the Trench, as named by Aquaman. Aquaman himself is the King of Atlantis, which stands against the Trench. Unfortunately, there are problems happening in the oceans that supersede an attack on a surface city and Aquaman was forced to ask the Justice League for help turning this attack back. It was a conflict that was forced into being by a mercenary called Black Manta, or David Hyde. Aquaman surmised that we faced hundreds, perhaps even a thousand Trenchers in this battle, Mr. President, and I suspect that this is a rather low number in terms of the kingdom in question.”

“What can be done to protect against another attack like this?” Trumbull asked.

“That is something you will likely have to discuss with the King of Atlantis, sir,” Oliver replied. “He wants to reunite Atlantis with the surface and has requested an audience with you. I urge you to give this all due consideration. I get the impression that not all Atlanteans are in favor of such a move, just as not all humans will accept that there is sentient life below the surface of the ocean. We’ve already seen anti-alien sentiment aimed at Superman for the same reason.” Oliver sighed. “The world is changing, Mr. President, and I suspect a meeting with the King of Atlantis might well be a defining moment for your administration. But in the end, the choice is yours. Aquaman has already agreed to join the Justice League, if that helps.”

“I see,” President Trumbull said. “Thank you, Mr. Queen. I will consider what you have said carefully. Is there anything else that you can tell me?”

“I’ve got D.E.O. and A.R.G.U.S. agents waiting right outside my motel room door wanting to interrogate me about the Aquaman and the enemies we faced,” Oliver said. “What should I tell them?”

“Tell them that I am considering all aspects of this before I make my decision and that they are to stand down,” Trumbull said. “I will inform the new Director of the D.E.O. and Director Waller of A.R.G.U.S. to order their people to stand down, just in case.”

“I understand, sir,” Oliver replied. “I’ll keep the phone nearby in case you have any further questions.”

“I do have one right now,” Trumbull said. “Do you believe Atlantis, if this Aquaman is telling the truth about his status, should be considered a hostile power?”

“I think the fact that he claims to be the King and stood by us is a testament to what he wants to see happen and what Atlantis stands for, Mr. President,” Oliver replied. “But I would definitely label the Trench as a hostile power to be prepared for.”

“Thank you for your assessment, Mr. Queen,” Trumbull said. “I will call you if I have any further questions.” The President hung up without further conversation. Oliver slipped the phone into his pocket before deactivating the anti-surveillance device he had plucked out of the purgatory of Applied Sciences. He went to the door and exited his motel room. **_*1*_**

“What did he say?” Diana Allers asked, her tone completely flat.

“He is taking everything under advisement and is deciding the best way forward,” Oliver replied. “In the meantime, both of you,” he looked between Allers and Alex, “will be getting calls from your Directors to stand down. So, if you don’t mind, get the hell away from my motel room and let my friends go.”

“What will you be doing?” Alex asked swiftly.

Oliver gave a tired laugh. “I just spent thirty minutes fighting an army and losing blood along the way. I’m going to rest up and drink a lot of orange juice.” He made a shooing gesture, which both Allers and Danvers took offense too if their narrowed eyes were anything to go by, but they left, the D.E.O. getting in two of their armored vehicles while Allers and Shepard got into a Honda Civic and drove away. Laurel and the others came up to Oliver.

“So, what now?” Clark asked.

“Now, we rest, until the President makes a decision regarding a request that I passed along from Aquaman,” Oliver replied. “It may be a couple of days because this is a huge request. In the meantime, you should all call your loved ones, let them know you’re safe. Laurel and I are gonna be doing the same along with having a talk about what happened. Lois, I’m sure we’ll find time to have more discussions about what happened to me while I was away since we have some downtime.” Lois nodded, a smile on her face, and the group retreated into their separate rooms.

Oliver and Laurel entered their motel room, kicked off their shoes, and laid back on the bed, Oliver doing so gingerly since the last thing he wanted was to rip open the stitches on his multiple wounds. “Aquaman said he would come back later,” Laurel finally said. “After you and Superman left.”

“Good,” Oliver replied. “I probably won’t have an answer to his request by then. And I’m sorry, I can’t tell you right now, it’s-”

“Not your secret to tell,” Laurel finished. “Well, how about something closer to home? Like this?” She touched her throat.

“That I can do,” Oliver said. “Before I begin, there’s something about the night you died in the future I need to tell you.” Laurel nodded, even though her muscles had tightened at the reminder of her death in another timeline. “I’d decided I was going to stay right there with you; I suppose, now I look back on it, a part of me was wanting to reconnect with you even if I didn’t consciously acknowledge it. You asked me, if something ever did happen to you on one of our missions, that I wouldn’t let you be the last Canary, that I would find and train a replacement. I promised. A few minutes later, you started seizing. I can’t help but wonder sometimes if you knew what was coming and you wanted to spend those final minutes making sure I didn’t forget you.” Oliver reached over and brushed her cheek gently. “For the record, I could _never_ forget you.”

Laurel smiled gently as she took his dingers in her hand and held them to her cheek. “Go on,” she instructed, still holding his hand to her cheek, grounding herself as much as him.

“For a long time, I didn’t really try to find a new Canary,” Oliver said. “I was distracted at first with my duties as mayor and my renewed fight against street crime, which I did in part to feel close to you, the way I wanted to remember you. Then I was distracted by the fake Adrian Chase that Talia sent into my life. There was a point, a very low point, I reached after Prometheus tricked me into killing an innocent man, a cop, by dressing him up in his uniform and taping a weapon to his hand.” Laurel squeezed Oliver’s fingers gently, and he smiled in appreciation of her comfort. “One thing you need to know is that prior to this, we had fought off an alien invasion with Barry and Sara’s teams and an alien from another Earth called Supergirl, or Kara Danvers.” Laurel’s eyes widened at that. “During the attack, I and several others were captured and put into a ‘dream world’, I suppose, a perfect reality to keep us trapped.” Oliver fell quiet.

“What happened in the dream world, Ollie?” Laurel asked.

“I was going to get married, to you,” Oliver said. “I was finally worthy of you. Leaving that dream world made me relive all my grief over your death, Laurel, whatever else I told people. Combine that with what Prometheus had tricked me into doing, and I was so lost. I went to my base, which was where the Quiver is now, with the intent of getting one of Dig’s guns, going to your grave, and ending it.” **_*2*_**

“You didn’t actually do it, right?” Laurel asked, slightly panicky.

“No, I didn’t,” Oliver replied. “Because when I got to the Bunker, as we called it, you were there.”

“I-I was _there_?” Laurel asked in disbelief. “How?”

“It wasn’t really you, as I soon found out,” Oliver said, “though not before she tried to trick us all into believing her. I _wanted_ to believe her; I _wanted_ to believe the universe had given me a second chance with you.” He smiled a bit, and Laurel returned the smile, acknowledging the inside joke. “But she wasn’t you. Not really. She was Laurel Lance, but Laurel Lance from another universe, one Barry called Earth-2. And… she was working for Prometheus.”

“Oh, my God,” Laurel whispered.

“More importantly, she had the same sonic scream you have,” Oliver said. “Like Barry, she was a metahuman. I guess I should have realized that if _she_ was a metahuman, the gene must be dormant in you, as well.”

“Gene?” Laurel asked.

“According to Barry, what gives metahumans their powers for the most part is something called the metagene,” Oliver replied. “Normally it’s dormant. Dark matter activates it, but Barry and his team always speculated that something else could trigger it, a moment of great physical or emotional distress. Like seeing someone that you love supposedly dying in front of you,” he added, giving Laurel a significant look. She smiled sadly. “We eventually captured Black Siren and sent her to A.R.G.U.S. Shortly after, we found out about a woman who could fight, and fight well. She also had a similar power to Black Siren and you. Her name is Tina Boland. She was, and currently is, an undercover cop for the Central City Police Department. But at the time, she was on a revenge spree, hunting down the man who had killed her partner. She initially refused my invitation after killing this man and vanished. A few days later, I was in my office at City Hall and she arrived, accepting the offer I had made. She then told me she operated under a false name as an officer to protect her family.”

“That’s not possible,” Laurel said instantly. “While undercover cops do operate under false names while they’re _undercover_ , they can’t serve as officers under a fake identity.”

“I know that _now_ ,” Oliver said, “but at the time I was just so desperate to fulfill your last request that I didn’t acknowledge it, and neither Felicity nor Curtis, our two techs, had found anything suspicious. Anyways, at this point, she told me what she claimed was her real name: Dinah Drake.”

“That’s my mother’s name,” Laurel whispered.

“I know,” Oliver nodded. “When we were in Central City, to kill Thawne, I _saw_ Tina at Jitters while I was waiting around for Barry to show up. She was with a woman named Beatrice, a high-ranking member of the Ninth Circle, who was encouraging her to take up undercover work. I believe that Tina took those few days between her initial refusal and her coming to my office to report to her superiors and they decided to send her into my life using your mother’s name, to play on my feelings for you.”

“That’s sick,” Laurel said.

“It is,” Oliver said. “It’s also par for the course for the Ninth Circle.”

“What happened to them? Black Siren and Tina?” Laurel asked.

“Black Siren eventually reformed, ironically thanks to Felicity,” Oliver said, and Laurel’s eyebrows rose in disbelief. “Believe it or not, in the last timeline, you were friends, and I suppose she wanted you back, somewhat. I had planned on trying to help Black Siren but every time I thought about it, I just couldn’t do it. It felt like I was betraying you, betraying your memory, by helping this twisted version of you. But being back here in the past and seeing how you’ve grown and changed the past few months have showed me how similar the two of you really are. Anyways, Black Siren went back to her Earth under the name Black Canary. Tina was never exposed even during our fight with the Ninth Circle, which I would say ended in a draw, with Beatrice at it’s head. But thanks to Novu, I know that Tina failed to live up to her promise to protect the city, instead devoting all of her time into a group she called the Canary Network. Based on what Mia told me, it was essentially a female empowerment group.” Oliver sighed. “What I hate the most is that no one who held the title Black Canary after you used _you_ as their role model. None of them focused on helping everyone, on wanting to save everyone. They took more after Sara, helping women and only women. A fine goal, I agree, but not what I think the legacy of the Black Canary should be.”

“What happened to Starling, Ollie?” Laurel asked. “What happened to our home?”

“It became a burnt-out, crime-ridden husk ruled by street gangs, with only the Glades preserved behind a wall they built to separate themselves from the rest of then-Star City,” Oliver replied. “I have every intention of stopping that future. I won’t let our city become that, Laurel. I _won’t!_ ”

“Neither will I,” Laurel said firmly, placing one hand on Oliver’s cheek and stroking it gently. “Whatever comes, whoever thinks they can harm our city, will have to go through the both of us. And I like the idea of the legacy of the Black Canary being one where everyone is helped, regardless of their circumstance. I agree that what they did was a noble goal, but it _is_ Sara’s goal, not mine.” **_*3*_**

“I’ll help make sure that’s the legacy you leave behind, when we’re both old and gray,” Oliver said. Laurel smiled at him and his obvious indication that he was thinking of them being together until they were such. It spoke of how different he was.

“I think you’re wrong about one thing, though,” Laurel said. Oliver raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think Felicity was ever my friend. A friend doesn’t plot to murder you because your boyfriend chose you over them. If anything, she was probably keeping an eye on ‘the competition’. Women can sense things better than men when it comes to emotions, after all, and she would have figured out that I was still in love with you and maybe even that you had been tricking everyone in order to keep me safe. But the fact she was getting ready to murder me in this timeline to have you to herself tells me she was nothing more than a delusional psychopath. Not my friend.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Oliver said after a moment. “I guess I just didn’t want to believe that I never knew the _real_ Felicity. Then again, I kept sparing Merlyn in the future. Something I’m happy I corrected in this timeline.”

“Why did you? Keep sparing him in the future, I mean,” Laurel said.

“You have to understand that, in that timeline, Malcolm had been humanized to a degree by Tommy’s death,” Oliver said. “As a result, he was dedicated to keeping Thea safe, which meant that most of the time, he was actually on my side. Most of the time. In the end, he sacrificed himself to save Thea’s life by taking her place on a landmine.”

“Ollie,” Laurel said slowly, “the man planned to wipe out a city district because his wife died there, and then worked with the man who killed me. What was Darhk’s goal again?”

“To remake the world in his image,” Oliver said.

“Just like Merlyn wanted to remake the Glades in his image,” Laurel pointed out. “I’m betting there were other things that Merlyn did that were questionable that you ignored because you saw only a viable ally who would help keep Thea safe.”

Oliver looked away, thinking about the League. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “I suppose there is.” He shook his head. “You know, even in that timeline, you tried to point this sort of stuff out to me,” he told her. “You kept advocating for me to end the threat Merlyn posed, and I almost destroyed our friendship protecting him. No, I _did_ destroy our friendship protecting him. We were only barely beginning to heal, and maybe become something more again, when Darhk killed you.”

“Well, Merlyn’s dead,” Laurel said softly, “and Darhk isn’t going to get me in this timeline. Not so long as we have each other.” She leaned forward and kissed him, and he returned the kiss. **_*4*_**

The two laid in silence for a while, until there was a knock at the door. Oliver got up and answered it, finding Lois, Hal, and Clark on the other side with bags of what looked to be Chinese food. “Come on in,” Oliver said, stepping back and swinging the door open. “I could definitely use the food after that battle.”

“Yeah, we thought you might,” Hal said with a grin. “God knows I am. I call the Chicken Lo Mein.”

“Fine,” Oliver laughed as he shut the door behind them. They set the bags on the table and began divvying up the containers. As he dug into his Kung Pao chicken with a pair of chopsticks, Oliver asked, “Where are Susan and Kenny?”

“They’re off asking residents what they think of the attack on Amnesty Bay since they can’t get anything from you just yet,” Clark said mildly as he swallowed some Beef Lo Mein. “I think Lois has met her match when it comes to being a newshound.”

“Please,” Lois scoffed as she finished a mouthful of Broccoli and Beef, which she and Laurel were sharing. “She’s a big name right now because she got the big scoop on the battle, but _I_ have the inside track with all of you, and I’m calling in that marker. Perry is going to kill me if I don’t get quotes from all of you about the battle.”

“Well, the _Daily Planet_ _is_ carried world-wide,” Oliver acknowledged, “and while the broadcast was world-wide, not everyone will have seen it depending on where they live and work. The _Planet_ , though, is read by virtually every country in the world.” _The surface world, anyways,_ he added dryly in his head, knowing that when the news eventually broke it was going to turn everything on it’s head, just like Tempest and the Undertaking had. _How many more mind-breaking events can the world sustain before there’s backlash to the fact we’re not alone on this planet?_ “But we really should wait for Aquaman. He should have _some_ say in how this is portrayed. This is his turf.”

“That doesn’t mean we can’t do some of it now,” Hal said with a shrug. “Just our own perspectives on the battle should be enough for Lois. And it’s not like we’re going to get another chance like this with Susan and Kenny hovering, or if we do, it’ll be a little while.”

“A fair point,” Oliver acknowledged. “Alright, Lois, what do you want to know?”

Lois smiled triumphantly.

**_*DC*_ **

President Allan Trumbull sat in the Oval Office, contemplating the conversation he had had with Oliver Queen. Mr. Queen had told him that what he had to say was pretty unbelievable, and he had been right. Trumbull wasn’t sure he believed it. Oh, he believed this ‘Trench’ existed and the creatures that had come up in Amnesty Bay were from it, even that Aquaman knew of the ‘Trench’ and their threat and perhaps had fought them before, but it was kept quiet. But the rest of it? Atlantis being a real place? Aquaman being its King? That strained believability. And yet, if it were true, it would be this, not the formation of the Justice League, that would be the defining moment of his presidency, his legacy to the world.

Legacy was important to Trumbull. He had never found a wife, had children; he had been married to his career, to his dream of becoming the President of the United States. So, leaving behind a legacy that _mattered_ was always going to be something he wanted to do. He knew he had barely scraped by in winning the election, in winning a second term. He needed to show people they had elected a strong president, one who would change the world. A meeting with the King of Atlantis, reuniting the lost city with their surface brethren, would be a coup of epic proportions.

But Trumbull was smart enough to know not to accept something like this at face value. Before he met with Aquaman, acknowledged him as an equal, the leader of a nation in his own right, he needed _proof_ that Atlantis existed, that it was a real place with a population below the surface of the ocean. If they were advanced to any degree (and they must be considering they lived beneath the ocean), then they must have means of transport, something that could brave the depths and take a group of people to see the lost city for themselves. Yes, that would do nicely.

There was already a press presence with Lois Lane and Susan Williams, but of course he would also want his own videographer and photographer along for the ride, as well, to record this historic moment in his presidency. No doubt Perry White was sending a photographer of his own to Amnesty Bay; the man would want photos to go along with the article that Lois Lane was sure to write about the Justice League’s battle with the Trench. That would take care of the press presence on such a historic occasion. Channel 52 and the _Daily Planet_ had _history_ with the key players and therefore were the only ones likely to be granted an exclusive.

An ambassador would be suitable for assessing the truth of the situation and being his representative. He would need to carefully vet the potential candidates, but he knew that he couldn’t take too long. If Aquaman truly was a King, than he was a monarch whose time could not be wasted. Which meant he needed to call the State Department soon and have them assemble dossiers on their best agents who could serve as an ambassador to a foreign power, even if the position were only temporary, though if Mr. Queen was to be believed, it may become a permanent position if Aquaman’s desires were genuine and not just hyperbole. The ambassador would need protection; while the Justice League would probably suffice, it would probably be best to send a team each of Secret Service and Diplomatic Security Service agents.

Trumbull nodded, satisfied. Yes, that sounded like the appropriate response to this. He would not send the D.E.O. or A.R.G.U.S.; that could be taken as an act of hostility. What he had thought of would have to do. He snatched up his phone to call the State Department. He would need to have everything ready to go before he called Mr. Queen back and gave his answer. If Aquaman was truly genuine in his desires, he would no doubt be able to acknowledge that Trumbull, as a national leader in his own right, could not simply take him at his word but would require proof of Atlantis’ existence before any diplomatic overtures could be officially made. **_*5*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver winced as he could hear Quentin shouting through the phone, and based on Laurel’s expression, it wouldn’t be long before his girlfriend started firing right back. Oliver himself was about to call Emiko and Thea so that they would know for sure that he was all right. Oliver picked up his normal phone and opened his contacts. For a moment, he hesitated before deciding to call Thea first. She would need more reassurance than Emiko, anyways. He selected Thea’s contact and held the phone up to his ear. “Ollie!?” Thea asked, her tone slightly hysterical as she answered.

“Hey, Speedy,” Oliver said with a smile, before wincing as Laurel began firing back at her father. That was not a pleasant conversation. He stepped out of the motel room to give Laurel and her father some privacy and so that he would be able to talk with Thea without having to raise his voice to be heard. “Sorry, Laurel and Quentin are getting into it on the phone. I just stepped outside so we can talk. I’m fine, Thea. Well, I mean, I’ll probably have a few more scars, But I am going to heal just fine. I wanted to let you know it could be a while before I come home. Laurel’s going to be calling C.N.R.I. and arranging for someone to take charge while she’s gone, as well, since she’s now officially part of the Justice League and I get the feeling that our work in Amnesty Bay isn’t done just yet.”

“How long do you think you’ll be?” Thea asked wetly.

“I don’t know,” Oliver said honestly. “I have to wait to hear back from the president on a decision he has to make, and that is probably gonna take days. And after that, I’m assuming we’ll have to go to D.C. and that could also take days. I wouldn’t expect me back home for at least a week. I’m sorry, Speedy. I know it seems like the world is conspiring to keep us apart.”

“I know, you have responsibilities,” Thea sniffed. “It’s just… it’s getting _crazy_ here, Ollie. Emiko, Ted, and Rene are going out every night and based on what we hear between, they’re facing an army of the Ninth Circle practically every time they do. But I’ll let Emiko tell you all about that.”

“How are things with you and Roy?” Oliver couldn’t help but ask.

“He’s biddable enough, I suppose,” Thea said dubiously. “Don’t know what you were thinking making him my stockboy, though. He keeps calling me _princess_. One of these days I’m going to hit him.” _Or kiss him,_ Oliver thought dryly to himself. “You aren’t trying to play matchmaker, right? Because we were together in the other timeline? Cuz we got _nothing_ in common, not like you and Laurel and your ‘save the world’ streak.”

“Thea, if there’s one thing that my life has taught me, it’s that if love wants to happen, it’ll happen,” Oliver said. “If you and Roy are meant to be, then it wouldn’t matter if I made him your stockboy. Even just training could be enough. But you and he both need reasons to be coming to the shop, and this was the best option. Because I really don’t see people buying Roy as a sales associate in a flower shop,” he added dryly, and was rewarded with a snicker from his sister, who appreciated it. “Look, I still have to call Emiko. But I wanted to call you first, let you know I’m safe.”

“Thanks, Ollie,” Thea said. “I love you.”

“Love you, too, sis,” Oliver replied. “Goodbye.”

“Bye,” Thea said, hanging up.

Oliver opened his contacts list again and selected Emiko’s, putting the phone to his ear again. A couple of rings in, Emiko picked up. “So, sea monsters?” she asked by way of greeting.

“Something like that,” Oliver replied. “How are things in Starling City?”

“The Ninth Circle really picked up the pace when you left,” Emiko admitted.

“How many have they gone after?” Oliver asked.

“Twenty the first night, and twenty again last night,” Emiko said. “I have to ask, when are you coming back? With you gone and the Ninth Circle pushing us to our limits, we haven’t been able to deal with any street crime. The Ninth Circle seem afraid of you, I guess for good reason. I don’t think it’s any mystery why they waited for you to be out of town before they did this.”

“Unfortunately, as I told Thea, I don’t see us coming back in any less than a week,” Oliver said. “There’s just too much at stake here. I wish I could tell you _why_ , but just know that it’s-it’s an amazing time to be alive, Emiko.”

“Speaking of, there’s something I should probably tell you,” Emiko said. “I’m going to have to move into the Quiver. The Ninth Circle doesn’t take betrayal well, Oliver.” _No, they do not,_ Oliver thought grimly, thinking of Diaz’s fiery death at the hands of the woman he was now speaking with in another life. “Oliver, the price for betrayal is to burn. I-I’ve gone home so far, but every time I enter my apartment, I expect to smell gasoline or another accelerant.”

“Stay at the Bunker as long as you need to, Emiko,” Oliver said. “I want you safe as much as I want the city safe. Don’t risk your life unnecessarily.”

“Thank you,” Emiko said. “Is there anything else I should know?”

“Um, yeah, tell Dr. Briggs the RQ-1141 is trashed,” Oliver said. “I’m gonna kind of need a rush order on a replacement, even if its with the stuff they made your new suit out of. My measurements are already in the system, so it shouldn’t be a problem for them. Also, ask them to look into a new quiver that can hold more arrows. Those things had me because I had limited arrows. I need to have a greater arsenal.”

“I’ll tell them,” Emiko said. “Since you’re asking for a rush on this, they’ll probably have it ready in a couple of days. I’m pretty sure they live in that office and wipe the security footage to pretend they don’t.” Her tone was only half-joking.

“Well, in the meantime, I’ll have to hope nothing else happens,” Oliver said, than grimaced. If something happened now, it was his fault for tempting Murphy. “I should go. Good luck, Emiko, and stay safe.”

“You, too, Oliver,” Emiko said, and hung up. Oliver pocketed his phone and cocked his head. Yep. Laurel and her father were still arguing.

“Letting Laurel deal with her father’s disapproval while you wait to hold her afterward?” Clark asked knowingly as he stepped up beside Oliver.

“Yup,” Oliver replied. “You speaking from experience?”

“Yeah, Lois and the General don’t get on too well,” Clark replied. “So, when do you think we’ll see him again?”

“Soon,” Oliver said. “Very soon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> This is the end of the episode arc, but not the end of the Aquaman arc. Turns out it’s really a two-episode deal. So, it’ll take up both Episodes 12 and 13. 
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* Hoo boy, writing that convo was tough. It’s gonna be some time before the President makes his decision since this is a HUGE decision to make and one that will affect the entire world.
> 
> *2* This is sort of a reference to my fic “Arrow: Swan Song”.
> 
> *3* This is probably my biggest beef with the Canary Network and what happened to the BC title in-canon. It became about what Sara, Dinah, and E-2 Laurel decided it should be, which, while a fine goal, is *not* what Earth-1 Laurel was all about. Which is one of the many reasons that, in the end, Beth Schwartz is no better than Guggenheim. She’s a better storyteller, but she uses the same bullshit tactics. And to be honest, it’s not *hard* to be a better storyteller than Guggenheim. An *ant* is a better storyteller than him.
> 
> *4* This scene got added to the story at the last minute with Laurel and Ollie talking about Felicity and Malcolm. I’ve been meaning to have them have a conversation like this for a while, but this is the first time I felt it was appropriate to the set-up.
> 
> *5* So, originally it was going to be a trip to D.C. followed by a trip to Atlantis, but then I realized Trumbull couldn’t just take this on faith and that it would have to be the other way around. And yeah, shit’s gonna be crazy with this.


	24. The Answer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Alright, so I’m still working on this episode arc, but there’s like two chapters left in the writing of it, including the one I’m working on right now, so I see no problem with beginning to post the chapters since the main hurdle for me is done. Also, since he plays a minor role in this episode arc, I wanted to say that I’m having to recast the role of Zod. I’m now using Callum Blue, who played him on “Smallville”. I just can’t seem to hear Jon Bernthal’s voice when I write Zod.

It had been four days since the Battle of Amnesty Bay. A.R.G.U.S. and the D.E.O. had claimed the bodies of the dead Trenchers for ‘research of the enemy’ and Oliver Queen hadn’t had the grounds to stop them, something that he hoped Arthur would understand. He hadn’t seen him since the Battle, and he had expected to see him back much sooner. It was worrying; the only thing Oliver could assume was that Arthur was currently in Atlantis, preparing his people for the harsh reality that with the Battle of Amnesty Bay, they were going to be exposed and that it was better to get out ahead of this. Oliver hadn’t received a call back yet from the President, which at least meant he was considering the request Arthur had made.

Jimmy Olsen had arrived the morning after the Battle and gotten a few snapshots of the bodies of the Trenchers for the _Daily Planet_ before A.R.G.U.S. and the D.E.O. had claimed the marina and beach were off-limits while they recovered the bodies of the fallen Trenchers. Jimmy had taken a few snapshots of the remains of the RQ-1141, insisting this would show what a grave threat they had been since people knew that the RQ-1141 couldn’t even be penetrated by a .50 caliber bullet. He had also insisted on a picture of Oliver and Laurel before admitting, embarrassedly, that it was for Cat Grant’s gossip column, that she wanted a picture of the ‘Battle Couple’ that had stood against the Trenchers as one.

Neither Oliver nor Laurel were happy about the deception but resigned to the fact that seeing as they were the only two _public heroes_ , they would receive the brunt of the media attention. Laurel had already sat through an interview with Susan Williams about her own perception of the Battle, and both she and Oliver had sat through one where they were grilled on what it felt like to have the person you love most fighting at your side, among other things. Susan was certainly milking her practically unfettered access to them for all it was worth, as Hal had predicted would be the case.

Oliver’s only reprieve from Susan had been his interview sessions with Lois, which were progressing nicely. They had finished the first year on the island and were well into the second, and Lois had expressed a degree of awe that a billionaire castaway, med student, and A.S.I.S. operative could shut down a two-year operation like Fyers’. Which actually had Oliver wondering if Fyers hadn’t been Shrieve’s first attempt to destroy China as a threat to American interests. Something he would have to consider speculating on when the time came to discuss Hong Kong. **_*1*_**

His new suit _and_ quiver (completely stocked with arrows) had arrived yesterday. The liquid armor his suit was made up of was leathery and reminded him of his old suits, which shouldn’t have surprised him since Cisco was on the job now. According to the notes in the case, the new suit could take brief bouts of rapid fire and a straight shot from single-shot weapons, unless they were .50 caliber, which the suit could not absorb the way the RQ-1141 had. As for the new quiver, it was stocked with 70 arrows, and it appeared Q-Core had gotten itself an arrow fabricator considering they had stocked it for him. Of course, since they didn’t have the schematics for his trick arrows, all of the arrows were basic lethal ones, but on the off-chance another attack by Trenchers happened, that is what would be needed. It was possible the trick arrows, which could be bulkier sometimes, would limit him to 50-60 arrows depending on how much room they took up, but even that was a vast improvement on his previous compliment. Jimmy Olsen had, of course, required a picture for the _Daily Planet_.

Now, Oliver stood on the dock, looking out at the sea as someone joined him at the railing. “It’s a beautiful view, isn’t it?” Arthur Curry asked.

“It is,” Oliver said. “I assume things were in turmoil in Atlantis?”

“Something like that,” Arthur said grimly. “My people are not happy that this choice has been forced upon them. Many grumble about this, saying it was a human who exposed us and therefore we shouldn’t trust any humans. But I told them of your bravery, and that of the one you call Black Canary. They disbelieved, but I persisted until they believed my words.” Arthur leaned against the railing. “Have you heard anything?”

“Nothing,” Oliver said, “and I cannot force the issue. The President must make up his own mind, and in his own time. I promise you I will let you know as soon as I hear anything. Will you be in town from now on?”

“I will,” Arthur replied. “I must, until this matter is settled and there is an accord between Atlantis and the surface, even if it’s just the United States for the time being.” He grinned. “I can often be found at the diner, and if not there, the bar.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Oliver said. “I’ll be honest, Arthur. The idea Atlantis is real is a hard pill for anyone to swallow without proof. The President may demand proof before he accepts a meeting with you, and he’ll want other people he trusts to verify your claims, not just the rest of the League and I. Are you prepared for that, for what it would mean?”

“I realized this was a possibility during my attempts to settle my people,” Arthur said, and there was a certain degree of resignation about him. “The President cannot be made to look a fool. If he is to announce to the world that Atlantis exists, he must have proof for himself. I know enough of diplomacy from my dealings with Xebel that it may mean a diplomatic visit to Atlantis.” He took a device out of his pocket. “A courier ship is waiting in the depths,” he said, nodding out at the sea. “If I send the signal, it will come for us.”

“If the President does this, it could mean quite the entourage, including members of the press, such as Lois and Susan,” Oliver said. “I know you didn’t want the press involved before you met the President, but if there is one thing I have learned as a publicly-recognized hero, it is that they are a necessary evil.” Oliver turned to look at the sea. “For what it’s worth, I believe you. I’ve seen too many strange and unusual things in my life, which I’ll tell you about sometime, to dismiss the possibility that Atlantis is real.” He smiled wryly. “It helps that the Trenchers looked nothing like you, indicating there is a variance in species that live beneath the ocean.”

“You are an open-minded warrior, Oliver,” Arthur said. “It is a true credit to the President that he has chosen you to helm this endeavor. I do not know if I would have accepted aid or joined the Justice League if it were helmed by another.”

“I just do what I have to do to protect people,” Oliver replied.

“Which is what any good leader does,” Arthur said. The two fell into a companionable silence as they watched boats arriving and departing from the marina. “I did not get a chance to do this before. But I must thank you, Oliver, for standing with me. I wish to thank the others as well.”

“I’ll call them,” Oliver said. “Hopefully Hal, Clark, and Laurel can get away from Susan, Kenny, Jimmy, and Lois without much fuss.” Oliver pulled out his phone and sent a quick text to all three at once: _Aquaman at the docks, wants to speak to us all. No official press._

“Jimmy?” Arthur asked.

“Jimmy Olsen, photographer for the _Daily Planet_ , he showed up the day after the Battle at Perry White’s orders,” Oliver replied. “He’s now officially part of my little entourage for the duration of all of this. Of course, Lois and Susan are both getting antsy, wanting to know what the big secret is. I guess Clark, like me, realized that it wasn’t his secret to tell.” Arthur nodded. Oliver received a confirmation text from all three, and after ten minutes, Hal, Clark, and Laurel arrived in one of the rental cars. Laurel greeted Oliver and Arthur with a warm smile.

“Hey, pretty bird,” Oliver said, going up and hugging his girlfriend, giving her a peck on the cheek in greeting. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder as they walked to meet Arthur with Clark and Hal. “Well, we’re all here.”

“We should have some privacy for this,” Arthur said. “David will allow us the use of his boat, I’m sure.” He turned and headed for the marina itself. The rest of the Justice League followed him down the docks. More than a few sly glances came their way. The people of Amnesty Bay were no fools, and Oliver’s lips twitched as he realized they had probably figured out who Clark and Hal were, though whether they knew which of them was which was another question altogether. Where three of the Justice League were, the other two had to be, after all. “David,” Arthur greeted as they reached the _Orca_. “May we use your cabin?”

“Of course, of course,” Anderson said, waving them aboard. The five boarded the _Orca_. “Would you like me to take you out to sea, give you some privacy from prying ears?”

“I believe that would be for the best,” Arthur said with a nod. Anderson nodded and moved to the helm while the Justice League entered the boat’s cabin. Once they had pulled away from the marina and were on their way out to sea, he spoke again. “I must express my deepest thanks to you all for your help in stopping the Trench from massacring the town I grew up in. I wish to repay you by answering your questions as much as I can. You deserve such answers for standing with me without question.”

“Tell us whatever you wish,” Hal said. Laurel nodded and Clark adjusted his glasses.

“As I told Oliver, I am half-human, half-Atlantean. I am also the King of Atlantis,” Arthur began. 

“As in the lost city?” Laurel couldn’t help but ask.

“It is not lost to it’s people, though it is forever lost to the surface,” Arthur said with a nod. “Because of my mixed birth, I have long wanted to reunite Atlantis with the surface world, to bring our peoples together again. One who has fought against me in this regard is the one ultimately responsible for the attack on Amnesty Bay: David Hyde, or Black Manta as he is called. He hates all of Atlantis due to our mutual hatred of the other, and he wants nothing more than to see Atlantis destroyed. It is his hope that by exposing the world beneath the sea by stirring up the Trench and exposing it to the wider world, he will achieve this goal. I must stop this from happening, by whatever means necessary, even if it means allowing visitors to Atlantis if that is required to prove to President Trumbull that my words are honest.”

“This is quite amazing, Your Majesty,” Clark said.

“We are equals in the Justice League, so Oliver tells me,” Arthur said. “Therefore, in these settings, you may address me as Arthur. Only in official settings must you be so formal, Superman.”

“It’s Clark,” said the reporter/superhero in question.

“Hal,” said the space cop.

“Laurel,” said Oliver’s girlfriend and now a hero in her own right.

Arthur nodded in thanks. “If you have any questions, now is the time.”

Before anyone could say anything, a phone rang. Oliver’s eyebrows shot up as he reached into his pocket and brought out the government-encrypted phone he took with him everywhere. He answered it, bringing it to his ear with a, “Mr. President.”

“Mr. Queen,” President Trumbull replied in greeting. “I have an answer for you.”

“That’s good,” Oliver said. “I’m here with the rest of the Justice League, including Aquaman.”

“Are you secure?” Trumbull asked.

“We’re in the cabin of a boat out at sea with the engine running,” Oliver replied. “I’m pretty sure we’re as secure as we can get.”

“Good,” Trumbull said. “Put me on speaker. I wish to speak to all of you on this matter.”

“Of course,” Oliver said, before putting the phone on speaker and placing it in the middle of the table. “You’re on speaker, Mr. President.”

“Before I say anything else, I wish to congratulate all of you on a job well-done in defending Amnesty Bay from the Trench,” Trumbull said, and each member of the Justice League could hear the gratitude in his voice. “Whatever else may come of this, know that you have my gratitude for saving American citizens from senseless slaughter.”

“It was my honor, as well as my privilege, to help defend the town that raised me, Mr. President,” Arthur said.

“Your Majesty,” Trumbull said. “For now, I will assume you are telling the truth and grant you the appropriate address. I have been hard at work these past four days. While I appreciate your urgent desire to see this matter settled, I cannot in good conscience announce to the world that Atlantis exists without some proof that it does, proof beyond the word of one man, even if that man helped save thousands of lives.”

“I had suspected this may be the case,” Arthur said. “I assume you wish to send a diplomatic envoy to witness the splendor of Atlantis first-hand?”

“I do,” Trumbull confirmed. “But we cannot hide this from the public, either, Your Majesty. So, in addition to the ambassador, his protective detail, a videographer and photographer of my own choosing, I must urge you to allow the press presence in the form of Lois Lane and the photographer Perry White must have sent by now as well as Susan Williams and her cameraman. I am also assigning the other members of the Justice League to aid in protecting my ambassador.”

“How many in the protection detail?” Oliver asked.

“Twenty,” Trumbull said. “Ten from Secret Service and ten from the Diplomatic Security Services. I am assigning as Ambassador a man named Horace Ford. I have carefully vetted him. He is quite excited at the chance to essentially make first contact with a foreign power. I will also be sending along my personal videographer, Howard Hill, and the official photographer for White House gatherings, Jack Churchill. I understand this is a lot of people to accommodate, Your Majesty, and am willing to work with you, but I must know my people will be protected.” **_*2*_**

“I believe the members of the Justice League on their own are worth a great deal as warriors,” Arthur said. “I also understand your caution, but my people are already unsettled by the mere fact that we have no choice but to expose ourselves. Having thirty surface-dwellers appear in their midst would be asking a great deal of my people’s tolerance. The Justice League on its own protected the entirety of Amnesty Bay from the Trench. They will be more than adequate protection. But, if you must insist on the Secret Service and the DSS, then I will accept _five_ from each.”

“I believe we can work with that,” Trumbull said after a moment. “Like with the Ambassador, we have vetted each of the members of the protection detail to ensure they do not suffer from such potential problems as xenophobia, as that was a concern expressed by Mr. Queen when he met the original head of the Department of Extranormal Operation. Mr. Queen, I assure you that the new head of the D.E.O. is much more agreeable.”

“And who is that?” Oliver asked.

“A retired Army general, Samuel Lane,” President Trumbull said. Clark jerked in place, staring at the phone in shock. “In fact, if all goes as planned, you will be meeting him when you all come to D.C. after the visit to Atlantis. I want my people all on the same page and there have been communication issues between the Justice League and the other departments that deal with extraordinary encounters.”

“I look forward to it,” Oliver said. “So, the plan is to go to Atlantis, ascertain that it’s real, get a feel for it, come back, and go to D.C. where Arthur will meet with you?”

“And where the Justice League will be honored at a gala,” President Trumbull said. “I understand that Superman and Green Lantern will not wish to reveal themselves and so they are not required to attend. Unfortunately, Mr. Queen, this means the onus of being the face for the Justice League will fall to you, Miss Lance, and His Majesty.”

“How much time do you want for us to spend in Atlantis and D.C.?” Laurel asked. “I need to know so I can get the time off, Mr. President.”

“I suspect that, at most, it will take a full week to get all of this settled,” Trumbull replied. “If there is nothing else to discuss, I have to arrange for transport for the diplomatic team to Amnesty Bay. I’m assuming that will be your departure point.”

“It will be,” Arthur confirmed.

“Very well,” Trumbull said. “For what it’s worth, I do hope you’re telling the truth, Your Majesty. It will make for one hell of a legacy.” Trumbull hung up.

“Well,” Oliver said slowly, “it looks like the adventure doesn’t end here. In fact, I’d say it’s just beginning.” He looked at Arthur. “In all seriousness, Arthur, I have to ask: what’s the potential threat level against the diplomatic team?”

“Very high, unfortunately,” Arthur said grimly. “There are some amongst my people who are quite xenophobic. They did not take my Queen being Xebelian well.”

“Xebelian?” Hal asked.

“The only other kingdom aside from the Trench to survive the destruction of Atlantis was Xebel,” Arthur replied. “They more closely resemble Atlanteans than the Trench do, but they have gills where Atlanteans do not. Relations with Xebel are… strained.” He grinned suddenly. “In truth, my wife was originally sent to kill me, but she ended up falling in love with me instead. Unfortunately, our union did not unite our two peoples.”

“So, there are some who are going to react poorly to our presence and may try to kill us,” Oliver said. Arthur nodded. “Anyone in particular stand out?”

“My half-brother, Orm,” Arthur said. “He calls himself Ocean Master. While he is imprisoned in the cells of my palace, he is also the rallying point for many of those who desire to rise up and conquer the surface world. He despises humanity, and thus despises me because I am half-human. He has agents all through Atlantis.”

“I have to ask, if he is such a threat…” Oliver began, trailing off.

“Why have I not killed him?” Arthur asked knowingly. Oliver nodded. “Because, at the end of the day, he is my kin. Could you slay your own blood, Oliver?”

“No,” Oliver said. “I couldn’t. I’m sorry. I was trained to think of things like this.”

“By Slade Wilson?” Clark asked. Oliver looked at him. “Lois is really excited about the stuff you’ve told her, because she knows she’s barely scratched the surface.”

“Slade was part of it,” Oliver said. “But there is another, and unfortunately, I can’t really tell Lois anything about them. It’s going to be one of those things that has to be glossed over. Unless the person in question does something to expose themselves and their agency in the next few months, it’ll have to be that way.”

“Well, if we have nothing else to discuss, I shall tell David to take us back to shore,” Arthur said. The group looked at each other, then nodded, showing there was nothing to discuss. It looked like they would be getting a chance to have a first-hand account of Atlantis for themselves, after all. “Very well, then.” Arthur exited the cabin.

“Lois is going to _freak_ about her father being the head of the D.E.O.,” Clark said.

“And what about going to Atlantis?” Laurel asked. “Because I know it excites me, seeing a legend come to life, and terrifies me at the thought of being so far down in the ocean.” 

“She’ll be freaked, then she’ll be bragging she got the story of a lifetime, again, out-scooping Cat Grant, again,” Clark said with a grin. “How about you, Laurel? This must be quite a shock. Hal and I at least had some preparation because of things Arthur told us before the Battle. For you, it’s all completely new.”

“Honestly, a little weirded out,” Laurel admitted after a moment. “But between the Canary Cry, the Battle, and now this, I think I’m getting desensitized to earth-shattering revelations. After Atlantis, it’s probably gonna take a whole hell of a lot more to unnerve me.”

“We are returning to shore,” Arthur announced as he returned to the cabin. “Oliver, tell Lois and Susan that their questions will be answered very soon. Based on what the president said, we will probably be leaving for Atlantis sometime tomorrow.”

“That’s what I guessed, as well,” Oliver agreed. “We should all probably get a good night’s sleep.”

“It would be wise,” Arthur acknowledged with a nod.

**_*DC*_ **

Later that evening, Oliver and Laurel were in their motel bed, facing each other as they always were while preparing to fall asleep, in part because both of them tended to stay in the same position they fell asleep in and as a result they would wake up looking at the person they loved. “Ollie, I know things have been rough,” Laurel said softly, “but I keep meaning to ask you if you’re ever going to tell me about those five years away the way you’re telling Lois? I asked during the mob war, but with everything that happened, we never really got the chance to talk.”

“Oh,” Oliver said after a moment’s reflection. “I’m so sorry, Laurel. I completely spaced.” He looked at her. “I can tell you about it all right now, if only as an overview, and we can do detailed discussions later. Would that be all right?”

“It would,” Laurel said, scooting closer. “Tell me.”

And so, Oliver told her. About Fyers, Slade, Shado, Ivo, the Mirakuru, Waller, the alpha-omega, Shadowspire and the idol that was just like Darhk’s, and finally, about the Bratva. Once he had started, Oliver couldn’t stop, going in-depth, baring his soul to the woman he loved. By the time he finished, it was nearly sunrise, and they were both teary-eyed. “I’m so sorry you had to go through all of that, Ollie,” Laurel said, wiping her eyes. “I’ve already said this before, but now that I know everything… what you suffered was beyond anything I could have ever believed you deserved for what happened, Ollie. I’m so sorry that I wished for you to suffer when I thought you and Sara were gone. It was wrong of me.”

“Laurel, you were angry, grieving, and you had no idea we were alive and suffering,” Oliver said. “I know for a fact that if you had, you never would have had such thoughts because that isn’t who you are in your bones, Laurel. You are the most compassionate and selfless woman I have ever known in two lifetimes, and no matter how you struggle with what happened the day of the Battle, that will never change.” Oliver had had to comfort Laurel when the adrenalin of the Battle had finally worn off following their talks with their family (those they could and would call, anyways). Laurel had come to the harsh realization that her Canary Cry had _killed_ the Trenchers. She had killed living things with her _voice_ , and she worried about what that meant for who she was. Oliver had comforted her, pointing out the fact that she was worrying about it at all showed the depth of her humanity and why she was a hero even without a mask or costume.

“Thank you, Ollie,” Laurel said. She still wasn’t sure if she believed Oliver, but she supposed that in the end, it had been a choice between Ollie and the Trenchers, and she would choose Ollie every time. And it wasn’t like she had killed _every_ Trencher she hit with the Cry. She had knocked some back into the water before driving them all away by using the water to amplify the sound of her Cry, saving the city in the process.

They reluctantly got up to get ready for the day and to pack their belongings. Oliver had realized that he would need to be in costume, as Hal and Clark would be. He also suspected that Arthur would be meeting them in the same armor he had worn rather than his everyday clothes. In truth, Oliver suspected Arthur did not own a single formal suit since his formal dealings were all with regards to Atlantis and his armor probably served as his formal wear there.

Oliver didn’t know what was coming, but he suspected, based on Arthur’s comments on the _Orca_ , that this would not be as simple as going to Atlantis, doing a tour, and returning. Nothing ever was, especially in this new timeline. He grinned. Despite all of this, he couldn’t _wait_ to see the expressions on Lois and Susan’s faces when they found out their destination. Those were sure to be entertaining.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* In the S1 finale, Fyers says that this was a two-year operation. There is *no way* that they could know China White was gonna be on that particular flight, going over that particular island, two years in advance. So, IMO, this was probably Shrieve’s first attempt to do what he tried to do with the attack on Hong Kong: ensure China couldn’t be a threat to American dominance.
> 
> *2* Horace Ford, Howard Hill, and Jack Churchill are all historical archers.


	25. Stand-Off

Susan, Kenny, Lois, and Jimmy had been told to have their bags packed the previous night by Oliver, and so it didn’t surprise him in the least when a knock came at the door and he opened it to find them waiting outside. “I figured you’d be coming as early as possible to find out what’s going on,” he said with a smile. “Come on in. I just need to take a few precautions, and then I’ll tell you everything.” They entered the motel room, and Oliver took out the anti-surveillance device he had brought along, activating it.

“What’s that?” Lois asked curiously.

“An anti-surveillance device developed by Queen Consolidated’s Applied Sciences division,” Oliver replied. “I rescued it from the purgatory of Applied Sciences. Apparently, it’s just this side of too expensive for the government, like the RQ-1141 was. But it’s incredibly useful in having private conversations and keeping them private. I don’t want any remnants of our government agency friends learning about this until the time is right. Because as far as I know, Allers and Shepard are still in town.”

“What do those two have to do with the government?” Susan asked.

“They’re assets for the same covert intelligence agency that I worked with in my five years away,” Oliver said, “the name of which I cannot divulge. Something you need to be prepared for, Lois.” She nodded to show she understood. “I recognized them as being such pretty much right from the get-go. It helped that the waitress confirmed they’d been poking around a lot longer than the average blogger type had been.” Oliver sighed. “I know all of you have been wondering what the big secret is. I couldn’t say anything until the President got back to me with an answer to a request from Aquaman that I passed along. He got back to me yesterday while I was meeting with the Justice League. Because of how he’s decided to go about this, each of you will be intimately involved with this event going forward. He figured since Channel 52 and the _Daily Planet_ are already intimately familiar with the major players that they would be granted the exclusive.”

“You’re dancing around the topic,” Susan accused.

“Just making sure you understand the severity of the situation and the degree of trust being placed in each of you by the President himself,” Oliver said, looking at each of them, all of whom straightened as his blue gaze met their eyes one after the other. Finally, Oliver nodded, satisfied. “The truth is that the Trench is one of three kingdoms that exist in the Earth’s oceans and that Aquaman is not merely a hero, but the monarch of one of those kingdoms. Specifically, the lost city of Atlantis.”

“That’s an urban legend,” Susan said immediately.

“They said the same thing about aliens and Superman proved that wrong,” Oliver pointed out. Susan acknowledged this with a nod. “All of you will be joining the Justice League and a diplomatic team that is already on the way to Amnesty Bay on a trip to Atlantis. Aquaman already arranged it. The president is also sending his own videographer and photographer, but he wants to show he is open with the public by having two of our country’s premier news sources having access to this exclusive.” Both Susan and Lois perked up while Jimmy grinned, and Kenny looked surprised. “We’re going to be gone for a few days, at least, so I hope you have everything that you need.”

“And if this is just a giant joke Aquaman is playing?” Susan had to ask.

“Then we all have egg on our face and look like idiots,” Oliver replied. “But I believe that Aquaman is telling the truth. Some of the things I’ve seen in my life keep me from automatically denying such a thing.”

“Well, if it _is_ true, it’ll be one hell of a story to tell,” Susan said. Lois nodded in agreement, both women recognizing that if this were true, there would be more than enough story to go around for both the _Planet_ and Channel 52. “I’ll need to call my boss, let him know I’ll be out of contact for a few days but that I’ll be coming back with one whopper of a story.”

“Same here with Perry,” Lois said. “Come on, Jimmy.”

“Oh, and just a reminder, don’t say anything to anyone about this,” Oliver said as they all got up to go. Each of them promised to keep quiet and then left the motel room. Oliver supposed he would just have to trust them all.

**_*DC*_ **

A few hours later, a government convoy arrived at the docks where Oliver and the rest were waiting, Green Lantern and Superman in uniform along with Green Arrow. Black Canary was back in the same black ensemble, and Aquaman was waiting with them, armored and with his trident. The diplomatic team exited the convoy and moved to greet the Justice League and press presence. “Mr. Queen, I’m Ambassador Horace Ford,” said one man, coming forward and extending a hand towards Green Arrow, who took it with a nod. Ford turned to face the armored figure of Aquaman. “If what you have said is true, then it is a rare honor indeed, Your Majesty. It will be my privilege to accompany you and see your city for myself.” He gestured two men forward. “This is Howard Hill and Jack Churchill,” he said, pointing at each man in turn. “And the rest are the protective detail previously agreed to.” The protective detail all had stoic expressions on their features. “How will we be getting there?”

“Follow me,” Aquaman replied. He led them down to the end of the wider of the two piers, which opened up to the ocean and was probably used for diving off of. Something churned in the ocean, and a moment later, a silvery craft rose out of the water, turbines whirring as it moved into position so one side of it was even with the dock. A door slid upward, and then a silvery plank extended, touching down on the dock. Aquaman preceded them aboard, and was standing ready with the crew, all in battle armor, when the diplomatic team and the Justice League boarded. “Welcome to the _Atlanna_ , our fastest diplomatic vessel,” Aquaman said. “It’s named after my mother. Once we’re en route, a squadron of fighter craft will take up position. This is an important moment in Atlantean history, but it is not without its dangers. More eyes are on us than just American and Atlantean.”

“I look forward to discussing those in detail with you, Your Highness,” Ford said, giving a light bow, and Aquaman nodded to show that would be on the agenda. “How long will it take us to reach Atlantis?”

“Four hours,” Aquaman replied. “We cannot push the engines too far. Come. I will show you to the guest quarters.” He gave a wry look at Green Arrow and Black Canary. “It seems some of us didn’t get any sleep last night.”

“We had a lot to talk about,” Green Arrow said with a shrug. “She pointed out I’d promised to tell her everything about my time away, and yet I’d been telling Lois things. She heard some of it during the interviews in Metropolis and some in Amnesty Bay, but…” He shrugged again.

“Understandable,” Aquaman said. He led them through the ship to a shining corridor. “Each room comes with private facilities, and can accommodate up to five people,” he informed them. “Store your things for now, but then I would ask you join me on the bridge. I do not think you will want to miss our departure.” The Justice League and the diplomatic team stored their things (Superman had fetched Green Lantern’s lantern from Coast City so he could recharge his ring as needed) in the rooms and then rejoined Aquaman, who led them to the bridge. “Captain,” Aquaman said, addressing one of the men, “the order is given.”

“Excellent, my King,” the captain said. “Helmsman, take us down.” The engines began whirring again, and the ship turned even as it descended back into the depths and pulled away from Amnesty Bay, moving further out into the ocean and angling southward. Whatever doubts those present might have had were blown away by the existence of this diplomatic vessel and the fact that they were heading deeper into the sea. Even as they watched, an escort of small craft took up positions around the ship.

“You mentioned there might be problems,” Ambassador Ford said. “What kind of problems?”

“As I told the Justice League, there are three kingdoms below the surface,” Aquaman said, slipping into his role as King Arthur of Atlantis. “The Trench represents one kingdom and is the most vicious and aggressive. Atlantis is another. Finally, there is Xebel. They are cunning and they hate the surface even more than the most xenophobic of my people. They also have spies everywhere, and it is likely they have heard of this mission. They will attempt to destroy us. I have personally vetted the men who now guard us. They are trustworthy and will not fail us.”

“I’m very grateful for your candidness, Your Highness,” Ambassador Ford said. “And I thank you for granting us the chance to see the _Atlanna_ begin its journey to Atlantis. I assume you will also inform us when the time comes to catch our first glimpse of the city?”

“I will,” Aquaman said. “For now, you may return to your quarters and rest.”

The Justice League preceded the diplomatic team and press contingent, the Secret Service and DSS agents taking up the rear as they moved back through the ship to the guest quarters. Once there, the Justice League waited for the ambassador and his entourage to enter their quarters and the press contingent to enter theirs before they entered their own. Green Arrow and Black Canary moved to a bed and laid on it, closely entwined since the bed was technically a single. “Sleeping for a few hours with you in my arms sounds about right to me,” Green Arrow muttered sleepily to Black Canary, who smiled before closing her eyes. Superman and Green Lantern shook their heads, the former amazed at how loving the two of them were with each other even now (though he and Lois couldn’t really talk) while Green Lantern was a little disgruntled about them not being prepared to be up at all times. Then again, there was unlikely to be any issues on their trip to Atlantis.

**_*DC*_ **

**Star City, 2046**

The _Waverider_ , damaged by a blast from Chronos’ cannons, fell out of the temporal zone. “Gideon, get those stabilizers running, now!” Rip Hunter exclaimed as his hands danced across the controls. The Legends were all locked in their seats. The stabilizers kicked in, and Rip activated the stealth field, landing them on a rooftop for the time being. “Gideon, what’s the damage?” Rip asked.

“The power conduit for the time drive has been damaged and the stabilizers are, as Mr. Grayson would say, wonky,” Gideon replied. “The latter can be easily repaired. But we will need to find a suitable replacement for the power conduit. Scanning… we are currently in Star City, 2046. We _should_ be able to procure a power conduit of the necessary capacity by contacting Mr. Queen, as Queen Industries produces such power conduits at this point in time in large quantities for their government contracts.”

“An excellent observation, Gideon,” Rip said. “We’ll take the _Waverider_ to the Queen Mansion and make our repairs there. Sara, Barry, I would like you to accompany me when I speak to Mr. Queen. I’m sure familiar faces will help ease the situation. Please be aware that because the mission is not yet finished and you _haven’t_ returned to the present, Mr. Queen and anyone else that you know will be under the impression that you vanished off the face of the Earth in January 2013.”

“You didn’t tell us that when we signed on for this!” Barry said, outraged. “That means in the world _out there_ , my Dad probably _died_ thinking I’d been killed while on sabbatical!”

“Your father won’t be the only one who felt like that,” Sara said glumly, thinking of how she had disconnected her phone since she wouldn’t need it for at least four months before leaving. “And Ollie and Laurel might’ve known what we were doing but that doesn’t change the fact that they probably think we all got killed.” She gave Rip a wry glance. “You’re hoping me and Barry being there will stop Ollie from killing you, aren’t you?”

“I think it would be helpful if Mr. Queen and his wife saw the both of you whole and healthy, yes,” Rip acknowledged before turning to the controls and beginning to pilot the _Waverider_ away from downtown Star City, as it was apparently known now, and towards the Queen Mansion. A few minutes later, they sat down in the expansive back lawn of the Queen Mansion. “Alright, the rest of you begin working on what minor repairs need done,” Rip said. “Barry, Sara, and I will go and speak to Mr. and Mrs. Queen.” Sara jerked slightly, then shook her head ruefully and smiled. If it was the year 2046, _of course_ Ollie and Laurel would now be married.

Rip, Barry, and Sara exited the _Waverider_ and made their way into the Queen Mansion through the back entrance, only to find themselves faced with a young woman with that Sara recognized as having a mixture of Laurel and Thea’s features and Oliver’s blue eyes. The young woman started at the appearance. “Mom, Dad!” she shouted in alarm. Sara winced. This was already not going well since Oliver and Laurel were going to show up ready for intruders. Sure enough, when Oliver and Laurel appeared, it was with an arrow nocked and a bo staff at the ready, but the battle-hardened expressions vanished as they took in the appearance of their unexpected guests.

“Sara?” Laurel Lance-Queen asked in wondering disbelief, lowering her bo staff. She set it aside, moved to her sister, and then pulled her younger sister, who had frozen at the sight of Oliver’s robotic right arm and Laurel’s mechanical left hand, into a hug. “Oh, thank God,” Laurel breathed. “I-We thought-”

“Yeah, Rip here _just_ told us the news that until we actually _come back_ , you’ll all think we’ve been missing since 2013,” Sara said, jerking her thumb at Rip.

Laurel eyed him. “So,” she said softly. “You’re the infamous Rip Hunter.” Oliver and what could only be their daughter winced, as though they knew what was coming, which confused Sara. A moment later, Laurel had delivered a straight punch with her mechanical hand to Rip’s nose, which broke under the impact and blood spurted, staining his moustache and goatee. “I’ve been waiting over thirty years to do that,” Laurel said matter-of-factly. “That’s for calling my sister unimportant.” **_*1*_**

“I have never said that,” Rip said thickly.

“You did in the old timeline, which means that’s what you and your old bosses think of her in this timeline, too,” Laurel said, shooting a smile at her sister, who was smiling affectionately. “Maybe in the original timeline, before Thawne, your old bosses, and all of the other shit that went down screwed things to hell she was unimportant. But she is in the last timeline, and this one.” She gave Rip a glare. “So, don’t ever think she’s expendable. If you come back to 2013 without her, I’ll rip your larynx out.”

“Easy, sis,” Sara finally said, though it was clear from the pleasure in her tone that she was thoroughly enjoying Laurel ripping into Rip. “So far we’ve been good. Anyways, we’re here because we need your help.”

“Yes, we need a Celsius 1300 Power Conduit for our time drive, which was damaged in a battle with Chronos in the temporal zone,” Rip said.

“I’ll call Emiko, get her to bring one out,” Oliver said, moving off and pulling out his cell phone.

Sara, meanwhile, was again staring at her sister’s left hand. “What happened? To your hand, to Ollie’s arm?” Sara asked softly, gingerly taking the hand and almost wincing as she felt cold metal instead of warm skin.

Laurel smiled sadly. “The cost of being the most prominent heroes of this Golden Age is that we take the most danger,” Laurel said. “In this case, Slade Wilson’s son, Grant, decided to take up his father’s mantle. He got Ollie’s arm during a duel. My hand, he took in some twisted idea that removing it and my ability to wear a wedding ring would twist Ollie up. I hit him with the Canary Cry right afterward and then Ollie tied him up. He’s in Blackgate now, and our love couldn’t be stronger.” Laurel pulled Sara over to where her daughter was standing. “Come on, there’s someone I want you to meet. This is my daughter, Olivia Mia Queen. Livvy, this is your Aunt Sara.”

“No, Mom, Really? That never occurred to me,” Olivia said, giving a daredevil smirk that was pure Oliver while the sass was pure Lance.

“Dad must have _loved_ you,” Sara said with a smile.

“Oh, he did,” Olivia said smugly. “He and Dad never really got on, and things were tense between him and Mom because of how he reacted to Amnesty Bay and Atlantis. Things were pretty tense for a long time, but then I was born, and Mom invited him to the hospital to meet me. According to Mom, seeing me helped heal the family more than him going to rehab did.”

“Rehab?” Sara asked woodenly.

“Dad… he fell off the wagon pretty hard after the Battle of Amnesty Bay and Atlantis was revealed to the world,” Laurel said. Sara’s hand shot to her mouth. “Ollie handled everything, made sure he got to rehab, even if it was under protest. But even after, things were still pretty tense because Daddy thought Oliver had destroyed our family by turning me into a vigilante and sending you off on a secret mission traveling through time.”

“So, he found out the truth?” Sara asked, only somewhat relieved.

“Yeah,” Laurel said. “It didn’t go well since it was on top of everything else. But what about you? How has traveling through time been?”

“Exciting, exhilarating, terrifying,” Sara said, smiling. “Of course, once I get back, I’m going to hunt down Slade and kill him so Grant can never do _this_.” She touched her sister’s mechanical hand.

“Wouldn’t work, sis,” Laurel said sadly. “Grant’s already been born. And before you say it, Grant’s only five in 2013. You can’t kill an innocent child.” **_*2*_**

Oliver approached them, putting his phone back in his pocket. “Emiko’s on her way,” Oliver said, his left arm wrapping around his wife’s shoulders, Laurel leaning into his embrace. It was amazing to see how loving these two were 33 years later, Sara thought. “I heard you talking about Grant. Interestingly, Flashpoint also changed his date of conception so that he was in his late twenties in the final version of the timeline I came from. He attacked Star City as an adult in 2019 in that timeline. The knowledge of the other timelines that the Monitor gave me helped me relax when I realized I wouldn’t have to worry about Grant for years after defeating Slade.”

“And how’d you do that?” Sara asked swiftly.

“You’ll have to find out by sticking around,” Oliver said calmly. Sara narrowed her eyes, but he remained passive. “Now, Barry, I distinctly remember telling you to _stay on the ship_.”

“Uh, it was his idea,” Barry said, pointing at the still bleeding Rip, completely throwing the man under the bus. Oliver turned his dead-eye gaze on Rip.

“I thought you might wish to see they are doing well,” Rip said in his defense. “And it’s not like we’ll be spending too much time here. Just long enough to repair the ship.”

“So, you decided to land your ship in the backyard of the Queen Mansion, which I moved my family into so we could have a defensible position from our enemies, who constantly target Laurel, Olivia, and I?” Oliver asked dryly. “Barry, get back on the ship, now.” Barry headed back out to the ship.

“I know you’re worried about him, Ollie, but is he really in _that_ much danger on your property?” Sara asked.

“Uh, guys?” Barry’s voice came from the back door. They turned, and immediately Laurel and Olivia sighed in resignation while Oliver facepalmed, because there was Barry with a fucking ninja holding a sword to his throat.

“Seriously?” Sara asked in disbelief.

**_*DC*_ **

**The _Atlanna_ , February 2013**

Green Arrow and Black Canary had slept for three hours before waking up, feeling refreshed. “I don’t know about you, but I think I want to go to the bridge, see what the ocean looks like as deep as we must be now,” Green Arrow said to Black Canary as they sat upon the bed. Green Arrow grabbed his quiver from where it was resting beside the bed and swung it up over his torso, clipping the clasp into place in the center of his chest. “It’s probably something we won’t get the opportunity to see again.”

“Sounds good to me,” Black Canary replied. “A good chance to stretch our legs, keep the muscles limber.”

Green Arrow gave her a once-over. “I don’t think you have any problems in that arena,” he said with a mischievous smile.

“Down, boy,” Black Canary snarked back. Superman and Green Lantern, who had been sitting on their own beds, looked at each other. Were these two going to be like this the entire trip?

“How about you two? Want to join us?” Green Arrow asked the other two members of the Justice League.

“To be honest, one of us should stay behind to keep an eye on everything,” Green Lantern said.

“I can do that,” Superman offered. Green Lantern nodded and then gestured to Green Arrow and Black Canary. The three heroes exited their rooms and found the ambassador exiting his own.

“Ambassador Ford? Something we can help you with?” Green Arrow asked.

“I thought I might head to the bridge, check on our E.T.A.,” Ford replied.

“We’re heading their ourselves,” Black Canary said. “You might as well join us. But we should probably have some of your security detail come with us, if only to keep them from complaining.”

“Yes, I suppose you’re right,” Ford said. After the DSS agents had assembled, the group made their way to the bridge, where Aquaman was talking quietly with the captain. His expression brightened at the sight of them. “Your Majesty, we were just coming to see the sights and get an E.T.A. on our arrival,” Ford informed Aquaman.

“We are making good time, and should make it to Atlantis very soon,” Aquaman said.

“Your Majesty, scans are picking up other ships coming our way,” an officer at a console, presumably the radar, said.

“A welcoming party from Atlantis?” Aquaman asked cautiously.

“Negative,” the officer replied. “Silhouette reads as Xebelian. A cruiser and a squadron of fighters. They must have heard what we’re up to, Your Majesty.”

“Distress signal sent to Atlantis,” another officer said, showing the Atlantean crew were on top of things.

“What are the odds we have to fight our way out before any back-up arrives?” Green Lantern asked Aquaman grimly.

“Atlantean ships are quite swift, and Xebelians are known for their posturing,” Aquaman replied. “If we can keep them distracted, we might just hold out. Still, we should bring our defenses to bear.”

“Shields are already at maximum, Your Majesty, and our squadron of fighter escorts are prepared,” the captain said, looking at a readout on his chair. “I believe it would be wise to send the humans back to their quarters. It may exacerbate the situation with the Xebelians.”

“I agree that the Ambassador and his protective detail should return to their rooms, but the Justice League represents the capacity humans have for tolerance, something that those of us who live beneath the oceans must practice if we’re to be accepted by those above the surface,” Aquaman replied before turning to his guests. “Ambassador, I urge you to return to your quarters.”

“I will,” Ford said after a moment. “We’ll send Superman up to present that united front you want.” Aquaman nodded his appreciation and the ambassador left with his protective detail in tow. Five minutes later, Superman entered the bridge.

“Any changes?” Superman asked calmly.

“No, the Xebelians are still out of range,” the captain replied. “We expect them to form a blockade, keep us from reaching Atlantis.”

“And if they attack?” Superman asked.

“Then we pray to whatever gods we may worship,” the captain replied grimly. **_*3*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* Seriously, I’ve been wanting to write a scene like this, with either Oliver or Laurel breaking Rip’s nose for his antics, for ages. I hope everyone enjoyed it.
> 
> *2* Okay, so, Grant Wilson’s age and such is one of the wonkiest parts of the timeline in “Arrow”. When he’s introduced in “Legends”, he’s fairly young-looking, which means he can’t be more than maybe in his thirties in 2046. Then he randomly appears in 8x04, a full 12 years ahead of schedule and already in his late-twenties/early-thirties, and we’re supposed to believe Slade had no idea that he had a second adult son. *Right*. So, I’m retconning this and claiming Flashpoint changed when Grant was conceived, because originally (the version that was shown in Legends) seemed to have inherited his father’s insanity from the Mirakuru. But then, are we surprised about the stupidity of the Arrow showrunners/writers and them ignoring the canon of another show? Nope, we are not.
> 
> *3* I know this is a hell of a cliffhanger to leave off with, but that seemed like the perfect place to end the chapter.


	26. Atlantis

Dru-Zod entered Fort Rozz, ignoring the fearful looks from some of the other prisoners who had apparently returned (or remained behind) to the prison since it could be ironically considered a place of safety on this hostile and strange world. He had tracked his fellow Kryptonians back here, both his own soldiers and those who had been under the command of General Astra, a compatriot who had had a different vision for saving Krypton from its destruction. She was an idealist who had believed that if she could just force people to listen that their world could be saved. Zod, on the other hand, had realized that they needed to expand, to colonize new worlds, and so he had attempted a coup in order to overturn the High Council’s ban on space travel and begin setting things in motion. Unfortunately, one of those he had felt would be sympathetic to his cause, Jor-El, had betrayed him and led to his capture. Which, of course, was why Zod would avenge himself upon Kal-El. The son would pay for the sins of the father.

Two Kryptonian soldiers appeared before him. The first was Commander Non, Astra’s second-in-command (and husband). The other was Commander Faora, Zod’s own second and his wife. Both gave a Kryptonian salute to him, Faora’s a touch more respectful than Non’s. “General Zod, welcome home,” Commander Faora said.

“Commander Faora, Commander Non,” Zod replied, returning the salute. “Are we secure here?”

“We are,” Commander Non replied as the two began leading Zod through the facility. “Many have returned, unwilling to brave this world alone, and have taken shelter under our leadership. That will be most helpful. If I may ask, General, why have you taken so long returning?”

“I have been exploring this world, learning all that I can about this nation we have landed in, and discovering the most likely threats,” Zod replied. “Have you monitored transmissions from this world?”

“We have,” Commander Non said. “Recent events have been… troubling.”

“The Battle of Amnesty Bay, as the humans are calling it,” Zod said knowingly.

“General Astra is _concerned_ as to what this could mean,” Commander Non admitted. “She is also concerned that this world seems to be on the same evolutionary path, technology-wise, as Krypton was, including their abuse of their environment, the way our ancestors abused our own planet’s. But unlike Krypton, we have time, and she intends to use it.”

“I see,” Zod said. “I will speak to General Astra.” It would be difficult to convince his fellow general to follow him, especially as she was an idealist where he was a pragmatist, but in the end, Zod would have his army. And then the true work of preparing for the Justice League would begin. He would need to send assets to Metropolis where they would confront Superman and test his nature. One way or the other, all life on this miserable backwater would kneel before Zod. **_*1*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Ten minutes after they had first entered sensor range, the Xebelian war party came in range, deployed in a net formation that meant the _Atlanna_ and her escort couldn’t simply hit the thrusters and maneuver over the war party while the fighters did their job. “Well, this isn’t looking good,” Lantern said, eyes narrowing. “I don’t suppose this vessel has any offensive capabilities?”

“It’s a diplomatic vessel,” the captain replied. “Wouldn’t say much for Atlantean diplomacy if our diplomatic vessels were armed, now, would it?”

“Fair point,” Green Lantern acknowledged. “Still, puts us in a bit of a bind unless they board us. How likely is it they try to do that?”

“First, they would have to disable us and destroy our fighter escort,” Aquaman said. “We shall see if they are willing to take this that far. They are almost in range of our communications array.” He gave the other members of the Justice League a look. “I am sorry that you will not be able to understand them. Unlike Atlanteans, Xebelians do not speak any human tongue. I will be speaking to them in their tongue, which both my wife and my advisor have taught me. However, they will be able to see you, and you them thanks to our communications technology.”

“We understand, Your Majesty,” Green Arrow replied respectfully. “We’ll be standing by should the worst happen, and we are boarded.”

“Let us hope it does not come to that, my friend,” Aquaman said.

“Your Majesty, the Xebelian cruiser is hailing us,” the comms officer informed Aquaman.

“Put it through,” Aquaman replied. Instantly, the screen ahead of them darkened and an imaged formed of a man, but not quite. He looked human for the most part, save for the gills that were visible on either side of his neck.

“ _King Arthur of Atlantis,_ ” the Xebelian commander said in his native tongue, “ _you are pushing the limits of Xebelian tolerance._ ”

“ _I have done many things to push the limits of Xebelian tolerance,_ ” Aquaman replied in the same language. “ _To which incident are you referring?_ ”

“ _Do not bandy words with us, Your Majesty,_ ” the Xebelian captain snarled. “ _Word has reached Xebel of your intentions. We know that there are_ humans _aboard the_ Atlanna _. It’s diplomatic status does not hide this act of aggression._ ”

“ _There is no act of aggression,_ ” Aquaman replied. “ _I have never hidden my desire to reunite Atlantis with the surface. I am merely turning those desires into action. This will not affect Xebel._ ”

“ _Everything that Atlantis does affects Xebel,_ ” the captain retorted. “ _You will allow a boarding party, who will take these humans to Xebel to be interrogated._ ”

“ _That will not happen,_ ” Aquaman said strongly. “ _This is a diplomatic vessel, on a diplomatic mission. If Xebel wishes war with Atlantis, this is a fine way of going about it. Is that what your King wants? War with Atlantis?_ ” For the first time, something flickered in the Xebelian’s features. Uncertainty. “ _He didn’t send you on this mission, did he?_ ”

“ _The Queen sent us,_ ” the Xebelian said. “ _She has the authority to do so._ ”

“ _Then your Queen risks war with Atlantis, and for what? Her own pride? Has she forgotten the fact that her daughter sits as Queen of Atlantis? Will she risk a war that could see her own daughter killed? Mera will not sit idly by in a war between Atlantis and Xebel. Any who know her are aware of this. And even if the Queen is fool enough to risk war over something so small, what will the King do?_ ” Aquaman folded his arms across his chest and waited for the answer.

“ _We shall communicate with the Queen, convey your words to her,_ ” the Xebelian captain finally said. “ _Do not attempt to evade us. Our weapons are locked on your engines. You will be dead in the water before you can begin your escape._ ” The communications were cut.

“So, care to clue us in?” Green Arrow asked.

“They were sent by their Queen, Mera’s mother,” Aquaman replied. “Like all Xebelians, she hates Atlantis and the surface. But she also loves her daughter. I simply sent the message that she, above all others, should know that any war between Atlantis and Xebel would threaten Mera. It also helps that this appears to have been a knee-jerk reaction, made without direction from their King. Now, we simply wait.”

“So, why do they have gills?” Green Lantern asked.

“A variation in physiology that came about because of Xebel’s location,” Aquaman replied. “It occurred over many centuries. Originally, Xebel was a penal colony of Atlantis. That is the source of their hatred for us.”

“Where is it located?” Black Canary asked curiously.

“You’ve heard of the Bermuda Triangle?” Aquaman asked dryly.

“So, all those ships and such that have been reported missing after passing through the Triangle…” Superman said, trailing off.

“Yes,” Aquaman said wearily. “The Xebelians are fiercely protective of their territory since they created their own kingdom, and they hate the surface as much as they hate Atlantis. But unlike Atlantis, the surface has no protections against an attack by Xebel and so they take advantage of that.”

“So, there are two hostile powers beneath the surface and potentially one friendly one,” Green Arrow summarized. Aquaman nodded. “That’s something you’ll have to tell the President, Your Majesty.”

“I will,” Aquaman replied. They fell into a tense if companionable silence. Finally, they were hailed again, and Aquaman gave the order to accept the call. Instantly, a new face appeared, this of a woman, red-haired and with a regal bearing. No doubt this was the woman who had sent the Xebelian war party in the first place. “ _Queen Alithia, a rare honor,_ ” Aquaman said, giving her a nod. **_*2*_**

“ _King Arthur, you claim that I risk war when it is_ you _who risks war by bringing these surfacers to the kingdoms below the ocean,_ ” Queen Alithia said. “ _You are exposing not only Atlantis but all kingdoms beneath the sea in this attempt at your foolish dream of reuniting Atlantis with the surface world._ ”

“ _It is no longer a question of if we will be exposed, Queen Alithia,_ ” Aquaman replied. “ _The Trench attacked Amnesty Bay, and the entire battle was recorded and broadcast to the entire surface world. If not for the bravery and skill of these people,_ ” he gestured to the Justice League members, who straightened despite not understanding the words being spoken, “ _the entire town would have been massacred and that would have led to humanity searching the entirety of the ocean for the source of the attack. As it stands, one of humanity’s leaders is willing to entertain diplomatic entreaties with those of us who live beneath the surface, to allow us to prove that we are not all like the Trench. But if you do this, if you attack the_ Atlanna _, board her, and make off with the diplomatic envoy to torture and kill them, you will succeed where the Trench failed and bring a war that we cannot win to Atlantis_ and _Xebel. Is that what you wish? For open war between the surface and our two kingdoms? If so, continue on your present course and see all that we both hold dear destroyed. If not, order your ships to retreat and allow us to continue on our journey to Atlantis unimpeded. The choice is yours._ ”

Queen Alithia was silent for some time. Finally, she spoke. “ _I will order my ships to depart and allow you to continue your journey,_ ” she said. “ _But be warned, Arthur of Atlantis: if your diplomatic entreaties fail and war comes to Atlantis from the surface, Xebel will not risk itself. You will face the fruits of your labor on your own._ ” The communication cut.

Less than a minute later, the officer at the scanners said, “The Xebelian craft are pulling away, Your Majesty.”

“That seemed particularly tense,” Green Arrow said. “But I assume we’re clear?”

“We are,” Aquaman confirmed. “I simply needed to give Queen Alithia a full accounting of what has brought this about. She hates the surface, but she is reasonable to a degree. After all, she only agreed with her husband, King Ryus, to send Mera to kill me in order to give her daughter a chance to live her own life. Though,” he chuckled, “she probably didn’t expect Mera to fall for me and become Queen of Atlantis.”

“We’re underway again, and sensor contacts are picking up three squadrons of fighters and two cruisers coming from Atlantis, including the _Arion_.”

“The _Arion?_ ” Green Lantern asked.

Aquaman chuckled. “It is the vessel that Mera has personal command over when she chooses to exert it. She no doubt chose to come herself in case she was needed.” Aquaman had an affectionate smile on his face. “As soon as we’re in communications range with the _Arion_ , hail them. I am sure that my Queen would like some reassurances.” He turned to the Justice League. “In the meantime, perhaps you should go and assure the rest of our guests everything is fine and that if they want to see our approach to Atlantis, they should join us soon.”

“Black Canary and I will do that,” Green Arrow said and headed out, Black Canary following quickly behind him.

They were back within ten minutes with Ambassador Ford and the rest of the guests. “You’re just in time,” Aquaman said. “We’re almost in communications range with the _Arion_.”

“So, we will be speaking with the Queen of Atlantis soon?” Ambassador Ford asked while Susan Williams directed Kenny to begin filming, just as Howard Hill was already doing so, capturing a wide view of the bridge. “I hope it’s alright that we’re filming this. We’re meant to document as much as possible for the President.”

“It is fine,” Aquaman replied.

“In communications range now, Your Majesty, hailing the _Arion_ ,” said the comms officer. Aquaman moved to stand in front of the viewscreen. The Justice League and the human contingent hung back, the videographer and Kenny capturing the moment on camera. The screen darkened again, and a red-haired woman with softer features than Queen Alithia appeared on-screen.

“Arthur, you’re safe,” she said, relieved. “What exactly happened?”

“Your mother must have had her spies informing her of recent events, Mera,” Aquaman replied. “She sent a war party to greet us. But I managed to talk her around. She told me Atlantis is on its own. Hardly surprising, given our relations with Xebel.”

“No, it’s not,” Queen Mera replied. “But I see you have guests, Arthur.”

“Yes, allow me to introduce you all,” Arthur said. “My friends, this is my wife, Queen Mera of Atlantis. Mera, those in costume and the woman in black are the Justice League, those who stood with me against the Trench: Superman, Green Lantern, Black Canary, and Green Arrow.” He pointed to each of them. “Up next is the press contingent: Susan Williams and Kenny McCormick of Channel 52 News, who captured the battle on camera and showed it to the world; and Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen of the _Daily Planet_ , a publication that is carried world-wide on the surface.” He again pointed to each of them as he introduced them. “Finally, there is Ambassador Horace Ford, the president’s personal videographer Howard Hill, and White House photographer Jack Churchill. The others are a protective detail assigned to the Ambassador’s person.”

“Greetings to each of you, and welcome to the realm of Atlantis,” Queen Mera said warmly. “I trust you were not too disturbed by your encounter with my mother’s agents. Xebel is far worse than Atlantis in it’s hatred of the surface, I fear.”

“In truth, we knew nothing of what was happening until we were informed by members of the Justice League of what had occurred, Your Majesty,” Ambassador Ford said, giving a low bow. “Your royal husband has proven he is quite the diplomat himself. And may I say it is pleasing to be the first human to speak to the Queen of Atlantis?”

“You may,” Queen Mera said, looking amused. “Our vessels are taking up an escort position around the _Atlanna_ , and we will ensure the rest of your trip goes smoothly. I look forward to meeting each of you in person when we reach Atlantis.” Queen Mera gave a nod to someone off-screen, and communications were cut.

“We are about to go through the most perilous section of our journey back to Atlantis,” Aquaman said. “At these depths exist creatures that have not been seen on the surface world in centuries.”

“Such as?” Ambassador Ford asked.

“The Megalodon and the giant squid, to name a couple,” Aquaman said. “They generally know enough not to attack Atlantean vessels, but occasionally those who are _younger_ and not so wise make the attempt. Still, there is a deadly beauty to this region, if you wish to record it for the president. We should be safe enough with the escort we now have.”

“That sounds like an excellent plan, your Majesty,” Ford said.

**_*DC*_ **

**Star City, 2046**

“So, uh, you guys gonna get me out of this somehow?” Barry Allen asked, only to wince as the ninja held his blade tighter to Barry’s throat, causing a trick of blood to go down his neck. Barry’s breathing became ragged and uneven as his fear drove his mind into overload.

Oliver had examined the situation and realized who it was. “Really, Simon?” he asked. “Again? This is the third time this year you’ve done this. When are you going to get it through your skull you are _not_ my greatest enemy?”

“ **There is no Simon, only _Prometheus_!**” the deranged ninja, the self-proclaimed Prometheus, screamed, shaking Barry. “ **You will lower your weapons and surrender to my judgment, or this man will die!** ” Before anyone could make a move one way or the other, something collided with the back of Prometheus’ head, and he slumped to the ground, his sword falling to the ground with a clatter.

A moment later, Dick Grayson’s head peered around the corner. “So, who’s the psycho ninja?” he asked.

“Some guy calling himself Prometheus,” Sara said, before turning to Oliver and Laurel. “Explanation?”

“Simon Morrison, the deranged son of Justin Claybourne who was trained by Damien Darhk to be a weapon against the Justice League,” Oliver replied. “When Darhk and H.I.V.E. were taken out, he survived, but he also lost the people keeping him focused. He stopped caring about the Justice League and has fixated on me and my family since we’re ‘where it all began’. He’s intent on ‘judging’ me, but his attempts to attack us are half-assed and tend to see him captured and sent to Arkham Asylum at least six times a year. The only reason I don’t kill him is because he’s hardly worth killing and his plans never truly endanger innocents. Every time he escapes, he comes directly at me.”

“And just how many people did he kill when he was actually ‘directed’?” Sara asked.

“More than a few,” Oliver said darkly. “And when he showed up again after H.I.V.E. fell, I was going to kill him, Sara. I had him down and at my mercy. But when I saw him lying there, raving and completely gone in the head… I knew I couldn’t kill him. Maybe Batman rubbed off on me a bit too much or something, but I just couldn’t do it.”

Sara sighed. “Just so you know, I _am_ gonna encourage your past self to deal with him straight out,” she said. “Because whatever he’s become now, he was a tool of H.I.V.E. And I would bet things change anyways when we go back.”

“Most likely,” Oliver agreed. “But for now…” He pulled out his cell phone again and tapped a contact before putting it to his ear. After a few seconds, he said, “Hey, it’s Oliver. Simon Morrison just attacked the Queen Mansion again. I thought I told you to give me a heads-up when he broke out of Arkham. Oh, really? You didn’t know? How the hell could you not know? You have eyes and ears all over that damn complex. Just let them know they can find him in S.C.P.D. custody. Right.” He hung up. “Pointy-eared ornery bastard,” he muttered.

“Deep breaths, Ollie,” Laurel said, amused. She gave Sara a quick, mischievous grin that seemed to take years off of her. “Ollie and Batman have this love-hate thing going. They’re so alike but Ollie is still willing to kill the most extreme threats and Batman still has his thing about killing, so…”

“So, they argue about methods all of the time,” Sara finished. Laurel nodded. “Be honest with me, Laurel: how many people did Prometheus kill?”

“I can’t tell you that, Sara,” Laurel said tightly. “God knows I want to, but Ollie’s made it clear what happens when too much changes in the timeline. We were both there when he told us about Flashpoint and-and when he became Ra’s.” Sara flinched at the reminder of what one of her alternate self’s decisions had wrought on those she cared about, even if that timeline had never come to fruition. “I have to believe that the timeline as it stands is the best possible version of the world, and that doing anything to jeopardize that would be risking everything we’ve worked to build.” She paused. “Besides, we learned the hard way that time fights back, and when it fights back, it plays dirty. Ollie was in a pretty bad place for a while there because of that.”

“I’m going to guess that you can’t tell me,” Sara said with a sigh. Laurel shook her head. “Is there anything that you can tell me?”

“Not really,” Laurel said. “I wish I could. I really wish I could. But I-I don’t want to risk everything that I have. Ollie, Livvy… This is the life I wanted, Sara. I don’t want to lose it by sharing the wrong thing.”

“Then don’t risk it,” Sara said, pulling her sister into a hug. “I’ll find out on my own when these things happen. And I’ll be there for you on your wedding day.”

“I hope so,” Laurel said wetly. “I wanted you as my Maid of Honor.”

“It’ll my privilege to do that for you, sis,” Sara said, smiling at her even while tears shined in her ice-blue eyes. “And I’ll make sure you get all of this. You deserve it.” **_*3*_**

**_*DC*_ **

**The _Atlanna_ , February 2013**

A dim glow could be made out, illuminating the edge of an undersea cliff. Those who were gathered on the bridge of the _Atlanna_ who had never before seen this waited with bated breath, knowing they were about to get their first glimpse of the lost city of Atlantis. Green Arrow had intertwined his fingers with Black Canary’s, and they were waiting and watching with the rest. The _Atlanna_ and her military escort crested the ridge, and the sight below them took away everyone’s breath for a moment. While there were ruins of a city, there was also a technological marvel, protected by a shield that seemed to have been built _over_ the original city itself.

Green Arrow had seen a lot of amazing and terrifying things in his life, including the brief glimpse of a megalodon and giant squid going at it on their journey here. But this simply took his breath away. Even seeing that tower on Earth-38 was nowhere near as impressive as the sight laid out before them on the ocean floor.

Superman had seen images of Krypton in the Fortress of Solitude, even knew something of what Krypton was like thanks to the fortress simulating Krypton’s terrain. But seeing a living, breathing city beneath the ocean, in what would be crushing depths for any human vessel, was truly breathtaking.

Green Lantern had seen many advanced societies in his duties as a Green Lantern assigned to this sector, but even he had to admit to being impressed that such an advanced society existed on Earth, hidden as it was from the world.

Black Canary’s breath hitched as she took in the sight of Atlantis, her green eyes wide with wonder and a delighted smile slowly crossing her features. She was among the very few people being allowed to see this wonder in part because of her role in defending Amnesty Bay from the Trench, and it was amazing to realize that, for so very many people, the sight before her would only be seen through video recordings from Kenny and Howard Hill. It saddened her in a way, because seeing it in person made it so much more impressive. She felt humbled that she had this chance. It would be an amazing story to share with Sara when her sister returned, and she hoped that her father would have cooled down by the time they returned to Starling City, because she so wanted to share this amazing story with him, as well.

Lois Lane and Susan Williams were both speechless for the moment, just staring at the sight of Atlantis and knowing that regardless of whatever else happened on this visit, regardless of whatever came of the negotiations between Aquaman and the President, the stories they were going to deliver to Perry and Carl were going to see them catapulted into being _the_ reporters to turn to for every major story to ever unfold. This, a visit to the lost city of Atlantis, would make their careers in ways that not even covering the emergence of Green Arrow and Superman had.

Kenneth McCormick hadn’t expected to see anything as terrifying as the Trench attacking Amnesty Bay or as wondrous as the sight of Atlantis now laid out before them, but he held his camera steady, not only because Susan would eviscerate him with her _tongue_ if he failed to capture this moment, but also because he himself knew what a momentous occasion this was and it was up to _him_ to show this to humanity. He felt a sense of pride, knowing _he_ was the one who would show the first images of Atlantis to the rest of the world through his mastery of videography.

Jimmy Olsen had his camera in his hands and was taking pictures, but in his heart of hearts, he was more than a little intimidated by the sight of a vast city laid out on the ocean floor. This was a whole new world in many ways, and he was part of unveiling it. That was slightly awe-inspiring, but mostly intimidating, because it meant that the world had never truly been normal, didn’t it?

Howard Hill and Jack Churchill knew, like Lois and Susan, that this would be the crowning achievement of their careers. _Nothing_ could top a visit to and the unveiling of the Lost City of Atlantis to the world. As awe-inspiring as this sight was, both were thinking more of which photos they would use to best convey their amazement (Churchill) and how they would cut the footage to show just how awe-inspiring this sight was (Hill).

Ambassador Horace Ford had been to many foreign countries over his time at the State Department. He had experienced many different cultures, faced many different attitudes towards Americans. But never before had he been _awed_ by the seat of government for a foreign power. This time, though, there was no other way to describe how he felt, and he knew, based on the expressions around him, that his security detail felt the same way.

“Behold, Atlantis,” Aquaman boomed. “The New City, as it is called, is where our people now live and work, though our archaeologists often delve the ruins of the Old City to restore more of our past to us. It is my hope to reclaim the Old City, bit by bit, and restore it so that Atlantis can be every bit as great as it once was, even if it is only below the surface. I have my chief scientific advisor, Nuidis Vulko, working on the problem. It may be that this won’t happen in my lifetime, but I can begin the process, at least.”

“It’s an amazing sight, Your Majesty,” Ambassador Ford said while Howard Hill filmed the approach and Susan Williams spoke quietly to Kenny’s camera, recording this for her studio when they finally were allowed to release all of this to the public. Jimmy Olsen was snapping photos of the city below them. “Truly, Atlantis is the eighth wonder of the world.”

“You are very kind, Ambassador Ford,” Aquaman said. “We will begin our descent and come up into the royal bay from below, giving you a close look at the Old City.”

Green Arrow had pulled his hand away from Black Canary’s only to wrap his arm around her shoulders. She leaned into his embrace, green eyes wide with wonder at the sight before them while Green Arrow simply had stunned expression on his face. “I’ve never seen anything so sad yet beautiful,” Black Canary finally said as the _Atlanna_ began her descent. “They’re forever cut off from the surface, but they’ve made this world their own.”

“They have,” Green Arrow said quietly. “This is perhaps the most wondrous thing I have ever seen, Laurel. I’m glad I have you here to share it with.”

“I’m glad to be here with you,” Black Canary said, tilting her head up to look at Green Arrow. He tilted his head downward, and Black Canary turned and went up on her toes, cupping his chin in her hands and bringing his face to hers. The two of them shared a deep, loving kiss as the _Atlanna_ descended through the ruins, pulling away only when Ambassador Ford gave a pointed cough. Neither were terribly embarrassed as they returned their gaze to the outside. They could see what had to have been the original palace of Atlantis ahead, and an opening with light shining down into the water above it. “Here we go,” Black Canary whispered as the _Atlanna_ ascended towards the light and broke the surface in a large bay, maneuvering to a nearly dock. They had arrived. **_*4*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* So, yeah, I assume that Zod was on Fort Rozz on Earth-38 as well and that there was an ideological schism between he and Astra, with Zod and his followers going right for Superman and Metropolis while Astra and her soldiers decided to take time to figure everything out and decide their course of action.
> 
> *2* Mera’s mother isn’t named either pre- or post-Flashpoint, so I decided to use a name from one of my original stories for her. I figure Alithia sounds regal enough.
> 
> *3* So, I know I seemingly spoiled some things there, but I tried to keep it as vague as possible, like *when* HIVE and Simon show up on the radar and what exactly goes down. Things are gonna be crazy when we reach that point is all that I’m gonna say.
> 
> *4* This is the first time I’ve ever written something like this in detail, so I hope it was handled well for everyone. Not sure how one is supposed to handle the approach to the eighth wonder of the world.


	27. Evolving Paradigm

Emiko Queen felt hollow. Looking at Rene Ramirez, Ted Grant, and Henry Fyff, she could tell they felt the same. The Ninth Circle had struck fast and hard, leaving them hardly any time to recuperate, and three of the people they were meant to save had died. The only solace they had was that it was descendants of those people who changed things. Still, failure was a bitter taste in their mouths. “We did the best we could,” Rene finally said. “It’s not like we can be everywhere at once, and we thought Queen would be here to help! Instead he’s off in Amnesty Bay or somewhere and can’t be reached. What happened to him caring about the city?”

“He _does_ care about the city, Rene,” Ted said. “It’s _why_ he brought us onboard. He knew he wouldn’t always be able to be here. If he didn’t care about the city, he would never have brought us onboard.”

“I know,” Rene said, shoulders slumping. “I just- I _hate_ that we failed.”

Henry was digging in the fridge and pulled out a bottle of vodka. “I think we could use this,” he said, finding four glasses and pouring them. The three vigilantes took a glass of their own while Henry took his own. “To the fallen, may they rest in peace.” The four clinked their glasses together, each lost in their own tumultuous thoughts. **_*1*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver Queen woke up once again to the sight of Laurel Lance sleeping peacefully beside him and he just laid there, watching her. Being able to see her, alive, healthy-looking, and so at peace while she slept was a balm to Oliver’s soul every time he saw it, because he was too often plagued with nightmares about Laurel’s final moments, and woke up with thoughts of what must have been going through her mind when she died, if she had any thoughts at all. He still wondered to this day if she had felt herself slipping away and that was why she had confessed her love for him before asking him to make sure she wasn’t the last Canary. His heart ached when he thought about that possibility, because it was so very Laurel to want to make sure the people she loved knew how much she loved them and not focus on the terror she had to have been feeling if she did know, somehow, that her time was nearly up.

Laurel’s green eyes opened, as if she sensed him staring at her, and she gave a sleepy smile as she reached over and stroked his left cheek with her right hand. “Good morning,” she whispered quietly.

“Morning,” Oliver returned, leaning forward in bed and giving her a heartfelt kiss.

As he pulled away, she had a sad smile on her face. “You had the nightmare about me again, didn’t you?” He nodded. “Ollie, you have _got_ to let that go. It is _never_ going to happen in this timeline. You and Sara have been and will continue to train me, and I’ll find other people to train me, too. And even though I’m not comfortable with the idea, I’ll get the magical protection once your friend Constantine arranges everything. And here’s something I want you to consider. I spent my final few minutes with the undivided attention of the man that I love. The only thing that I would have _regretted_ besides not having more time with you is that I didn’t get the chance to talk to my Dad before I died. Those would have been my _only regrets_ , Ollie. I love you, just like she did, and I am never gonna leave you.”

“I know,” Oliver said. “And I know one day I’m going to forget these nightmares altogether, because I’ll know that you’re safe.” He cupped her chin in his left hand. “I love you, Dinah Laurel Lance, and I always will.”

“And I will always love you, Oliver Jonas Queen,” Laurel replied, stroking his cheek. “But I think I’ll love you a whole lot more when you shave.”

“Not a fan of the mountain man look?” he asked in amusement.

“Most men who grow beards in the winter do so because they want to keep their faces warm, but you’ve said many times the cold doesn’t bother you. So, what’s the real reason you grew it out?”

“Just decided to try something different,” Oliver replied. “I had the scruff look pretty much every year in the last timeline from the day I washed up on Lian Yu to the day I died against the Anti-Monitor’s army. But maybe the beard isn’t the way to go.” He tilted his head. “What do you think? Clean-shaven?”

“No,” Laurel said thoughtfully after a moment. “It’d be too strange to see you without some kind of facial hair at this point. Maybe… a Van Dyke?”

Oliver scratched his chin. “I _did_ consider it for when the weather gets warmer,” he admitted finally. “Even though that takes me closer to the whole Robin Hood thing.”

“You’re already there,” Laurel pointed out.

“Not completely,” Oliver said mulishly.

“Ollie, you’re a wealthy scion who came back home and used archery skills to take on the wealthy and corrupt, and you make sure their victims are taken care of,” Laurel said with a smirk. “You’re _Robin Hood_. Don’t just accept it, _embrace it_.”

Oliver sighed. “Fine. When we get back to Starling, I’ll get a Van Dyke.”

“Good,” Laurel said. “Now, we should probably get up and get ready. We’ll be needed to help escort Ambassador Ford around Atlantis today.” Laurel’s voice was eager and excited, and Oliver smiled at the sound of it. Laurel had always been the most passionate in their circle of friends about learning, and he just knew she was going to learn all she could about Atlantis that she could without overstepping any diplomatic boundaries. He would learn what he could himself because this intrigued him, and he always learned the things that intrigued him. **_*2*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Dru-Zod was not accustomed to waiting for an audience, and he would remind Astra that she was a _lesser_ general than he before this day was done for daring to make him _wait_ an entire day before _granting_ him an audience. He would remind her that it was _he_ , not her, who was Krypton’s top military general and that he had earned that rank through blood, sweat, and tears. His sweat, his enemies’ blood and tears.

“General Zod, welcome back,” Astra said as he entered the room. He did not stop at the provided seat, however, and moved right up to her, pinning her to the table without much effort. She strained against his grip, but without both hands for leverage, she was more or less trapped. “What is the meaning of this?”

“What was the meaning of making me _wait_ for an entire day cycle before speaking to me?” Zod returned coldly. “You made a power play, and now I’m reminding you that you are _not_ the highest-ranking officer of Krypton’s military here. _I_ am, and _you_ will respect me, or I will crush you.”

“I had plans I was making,” Astra protested.

“Your plans are meaningless,” Zod replied stonily. “You are not the ranking officer on this backwater world. In the absence of the High Council, supreme authority over Krypton, it’s people, and it’s assets falls to _me_. You will kneel or you will _die_.”

“General Zod, please, do not kill her,” Commander Non said, stepping forward. “If she will not kneel, exile her. I beg you. I will place our forces at your disposal without incident if you but spare her.”

“Will you kneel, Astra?” Zod asked.

“No,” Astra bit out through gritted teeth. “All you know how to do is destroy. My plans may take longer but they will result in few, if any, casualties. I will not abandon them.”

“Your husband begs for your life, but why should I grant his request?” Zod said. “It is our way for the strong to lead. I can snap your neck and take full control.”

“Because there’s already too few of our people left in the universe,” Astra said. “You won’t kill any more of our kind if you don’t have to.”

“An excellent argument,” Zod said. “Very well. You will be exiled. Once we have conquered this world, you will be welcomed back with open arms. Is that understood, Astra?”

“Yes, General Zod,” Astra said resignedly. She knew she could try to fight him, but she had fought him before and lost, on Krypton, and no doubt he had been experimenting with the powers they gained from the yellow sun, something she had yet to do. She could not defeat him, but it was possible Kal-El could. He had been on Earth for decades and had the most experience with the powers granted to them. Along with his allies, he might just defeat Zod, and Astra would gather the survivors. She was patient above all else. It had only been her sister using her love for her niece against her that had seen her imprisoned, though not before the man who held her down even now had overseen her torture until she gave up the location of her people.

“Then go, before I change my mind,” Zod said, releasing her, “and know that you live only at my mercy.”

“Of course, General Zod,” Astra said, hating that she had to be subservient in any way to this sadistic man. She hoped Kal-El took care of him quickly, so that she could refocus the survivors on what was truly important: saving the humans from destroying their world as her people had destroyed Krypton. She left Fort Rozz with her head held high, knowing that the time would come when she returned.

For his part, Zod cared little for the departure of Astra. He turned to Commander Non. “Now, kneel before Zod, and pledge your undying loyalty,” he said.

Non went down on one knee and gave the Kryptonian pledge of allegiance, binding himself and his men to Zod’s service. **_*3*_**

**_*DC*_ **

**Star City, 2046**

The repairs had been made to the _Waverider_ , including the replacement power conduit, and now Sara was standing on the veranda of the Queen Mansion with Oliver, Laurel, and Olivia. “I’ll come back to you all in 2013, I promise,” she told her sister and friend, giving each of them a hug.

“We know you will, Sara,” Oliver said, wrapping his left arm around Laurel’s shoulders. “Now, be sure to send Savage and the Council to hell.”

“Oh, that’s definitely on the agenda,” Sara said with a vicious grin.

“I’m so proud of you, Sar-Bear,” Laurel said, her lips twitching into a sad smile. “And Dad will be, too, when you get back and tell him you freed the world from being controlled by the Time Masters.”

“If he even believes that,” Sara said with a laugh.

“Oh, he will,” Laurel said with a sad, somewhat pained, smile. “How he reacts depends on whether he’s been through his rehab or not when you come back.”

“I won’t let our family fall apart more than it already has, even if I have to slap him a good one,” Sara said firmly. “He raised two head-strong, passionate women, and he raised us to want to help people. He should’ve known becoming a doctor or a lawyer wouldn’t be enough in the end.”

“I tried that argument,” Laurel said dryly. She gave her sister another hug. “But maybe you’ll get through to him where I couldn’t. I love you, Sara, and I know younger me can’t wait to see you. She has so much she’s going to want to share with you.”

“I look forward to hearing those stories,” Sara said with a smile as she pulled away from Laurel. “Goodbye. And good luck. Both of you.”

“You, too, Sara,” Oliver said, and the Queen family turned and headed back inside while Sara went to the Waverider. She made her way to the bridge and took her seat beside Barry, wiping her eyes.

“You okay?” Barry asked, concerned.

“Yeah,” Sara said with a tremulous smile. “I just… That was a lot harder than I expected it to be.”

“Well, everything is operational,” Rip said, hands flying across the controls as the _Waverider_ lifted off. “It’s time we got back underway.” The _Waverider_ jumped back into the temporal zone. “Miss Lance, Mr. Allen, would you please do a check of our supplies in the cargo bay? Dr. Heywood, the library if you will. Get us our next heading this temporal sea.”

“On it,” Sara said, lifting the harness and heading for the cargo bay, which doubled as the main exit for the ship, with Barry following along behind. “So, do you believe Ollie now about you needing to stay on the ship?” she asked dryly.

“That had to have been coincidence,” Barry said. “Besides, I _have_ stayed on the ship. It was _one time_.”

“And that time had you have a nutbar ninja hold a sword to your throat,” Sara said. “Ollie told me that you have a habit of drawing psychos. His words, not mine. He said it might just be because you were The Flash, but me? I think you’re just danger-prone. Which means I’m gonna keep my eye on you, make sure you get home safe.”

“Thanks, I think,” Barry said, rubbing the back of his neck. The two of them began to take stock in companionable silence. Then, halfway through their taking stock, the ship shuddered. “Oh, come on…” Barry moaned. “Doesn’t this guy ever give up?” Before Sara could answer, something struck the side of the ship and vaporized the exit. Instantly, both Barry and Sara were pulled out of the ship and into the temporal zone. The last thing Barry heard before vanishing down one of the many paths of the temporal zone was Sara screaming his name.

**_*DC*_ **

Black Canary and Green Arrow walked along with the rest of the group that was being given a guided tour of the palace, including the archives of Atlantis, by Arthur himself, who was now in more casual wear, a black suit of sorts that was clearly tailored to fit him. Green Arrow had been somewhat surprised, having thought that Arthur wouldn’t have anything resembling a suit, but after some consideration he had realized how stupid that was. Atlantis was a _monarchy_ ; of course they were going to have formal wear beyond their ceremonial armor.

“This is amazing, Ollie,” Black Canary breathed as she took in the sights outside as they passed through a walkway that looked out on the city. “Do you think we could take a picture? For our own photo albums?”

Arthur had heard this. “You may indeed, Black Canary,” he said warmly. “Perhaps one day there will be many humans who are able to do so. But for now, I would not begrudge the people who helped me turn back the Trench a moment of selfishness.”

Green Arrow smiled his thanks before turning to the two photographers. “Jimmy, while I appreciate you would want to do this to include in your ensemble for the _Daily Planet_ , Laurel and I would really like this one to be private. Mr. Churchill, I assume we can count on your discretion?”

“Of course, Mr. Queen,” Jack Churchill said. “Just let me know when you’re ready.” Green Arrow and Black Canary moved into a position so that the view of the city would be captured, smiled, and Green Arrow gave Churchill a nod, who snapped a photo of them. “As soon as we get back to D.C., I’ll deliver the photo and the negatives, so you can have more copies developed if you want them.”

“Thank you,” Black Canary said warmly. She turned to Arthur. “Sorry for holding up the tour, Your Majesty. But Ollie keeps telling me we don’t get enough couple time. I thought I’d show him we can find plenty, despite our duties.”

“The two of you are well-matched, it seems,” Queen Mera said from where she was standing. “I look forward to getting to know you both much better over the next few days.”

“We do as well, Your Highness,” Green Arrow said, giving a light bow.

“Come, the Archives await,” Arthur said, and turned to lead the group forward. Green Arrow and Black Canary took up the rear guard with the five Secret Service agents, Superman and Green Lantern having the front guard with the five DSS agents. Green Arrow wrapped an arm around Black Canary’s slender shoulders and gave her a squeeze of appreciation at what she had done for him in showing him that they _could_ find time to be a couple even in the midst of their heroic duties.

**_*DC*_ **

Roy Harper was conflicted. On the one hand, he was a street rat who had no way of really talking with someone from the Queens’ social class, and technically he had no reason to intervene with whatever was going on with the princess. But Roy _also_ knew that Oliver would want someone looking out for his sister, especially if she looked like she was at the end of her rope. The way she was overextending her punches and the wild look in her hazel eyes told him that there was a lot going on in the girl’s head and she needed an outlet. So, as they began locking up the flower shop for the night, Roy made his move. “I talked to Henry and Emiko,” he said. “We’re not gonna be training tonight.”

“What?” Thea asked, startled.

“You’re running yourself ragged, Thea, and have been since the Battle of Amnesty Bay,” Roy said, and Thea was shocked to hear nothing mocking in his tone, just sincere concern. “Your brother is _alive_. Yeah, he took off on another secret mission and he wouldn’t tell any of us what he was up to. But he’s _alive_ , and both he and Laurel will be coming back. They won’t be happy if we let you run yourself ragged. So, tonight, you and I are taking some time off. Just as acquaintances, mind, I don’t want you getting any ideas.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I won’t,” Thea snarked back with practiced ease. “So, what grand plans do you have for this little break of ours?”

“I thought maybe we could go to a movie,” Roy said. “Nice and simple, and we don’t have to talk to each other. Oh, and we’re buying our own tickets and treats.”

“You sure you just don’t want to spend some time alone in a dark theater with a pretty girl, Roy Harper?” Thea asked with a smirk.

“Sorry, princess, you’re not my type,” Roy said. “I’ll take stock in the back. Then we’ll go to the theater.” Roy headed towards the back.

_Not your type, huh, Roy Harper?_ Thea thought to herself. _Not according to my brother. What is it about you that hooked me in the last timeline? It can’t have been your slavish devotion to my brother’s crusade or just a fit of rebellion against Mom. Something had to hook me to get me interested in you. What was it?_

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver laid back on the waterbed (as if there would be any other kind in the city of Atlantis), Laurel laying beside him and scooting closer, laying her head on his shoulder as she wrapped her arm around his torso. Oliver’s own right arm came up, hand sweeping through Laurel’s honey-blonde hair and resting on the side of her head directed towards the ceiling. “Are you feeling as overwhelmed as I am by all this?” Laurel asked. “I mean, a couple of months ago, our biggest concern was that you would be caught and killed before you could expose Malcolm and dealing with an empty side of the bed where the person we loved should be. Now… Now there’s aliens, and sea monsters, and foreign powers beneath the surface of the ocean that struggle with xenophobia, the same as some humans will when all of this is revealed. When did this become our lives, Ollie?”

“When Mar-Novu gave me a second chance at life and I decided not to waste it,” Oliver said, planting a kiss on Laurel’s forehead. “Without Novu doing that, none of this would have happened. But there’s something else in all of this, Laurel. Fort Rozz falling to Earth and the formation of the D.E.O., the Battle of Amnesty Bay and this diplomatic trip to Atlantis, an empire lost to time and memory… none of it happened last time, Laurel. There’s something else at work here, some force manipulating events. It could be the Council. It could be Novu, giving us the best chance to survive the Crisis. It could be someone completely different who has their own agenda. I just don’t know, Laurel. Nothing is the same anymore. Nothing except you.” **_*4*_**

“That’s not quite true, is it?” Laurel asked softly before touching her throat. “ _This_ is different.”

“Yes,” Oliver agreed quietly, “but what matters is that you’re not letting that power change who you are, and you are still the same person I have loved for over half of my life. That is still the same, and it amazes me that you can be who you are after everything that you’ve been through the past few months.” He kissed her forehead again.

“You know what amazes me?” she asked, tilting her head up so she could look at Oliver’s face. He shook his head, raising an inquiring eyebrow. “That you don’t recognize what an amazing man you are, yourself. Ollie, I always knew there was a good man buried beneath that swagger. It was one of the reasons I was so heartbroken when you and Sara did what you did. But then you come back through time, and you show me that you _are_ the man I always saw deep down, the man who cares so much for Starling City that he was willing to sacrifice his freedom for it. And that’s even before everything you’ve done _since_ taking down Malcolm.”

“So, in short, we’re exactly who we’ve always seen each other as and we should be happy that with all the changes swirling around us, that remains the same?” Oliver asked.

“Sounds good to me,” Laurel said, snuggling closer to him. He curled around her protectively, and the two drifted off in each other’s arms.

**_*DC*_ **

Taer Al-Sahfer, Horseman to Ra’s al Ghul and therefore one of the only women exempt from the League’s statutes surrounding women, stood opposite Hawkgirl, or who was preparing for their duel. Rip Hunter had issued a challenge to Ra’s al Ghul, which Ra’s had accepted, but then chosen Taer Al-Sahfer as his champion, surprising Rip, who knew of the patriarchal nature of the League. But then it sunk in; their whole mission here was to retrieve Sara, yet such duels were often to the death. By choosing Sara, or Taer Al-Sahfer as she was known in this place and time, to act as his hand in this matter, he was attempting to punish Rip and the team for breaking into the fortress of Nanda Parbat, leave them with the memory of what happens to those who incur the wrath of Ra’s al Ghul and force them to fail in their mission here while doing so. According to the records they had dug up before coming here, Sara had been here for two years. To rise so quickly through the ranks of the League, and to do so as a woman, was likely what had inspired Talia al Ghul to break away from her father in a few decades and become the Mistress of the League of Shadows.

Before the duel could commence, though, the two assassins guarding the door were vaporized as Chronos entered, torchlight glinting off his helmet ominously. The field team of the Legends broke formation and moved to engage Chronos. Hawkman and Hawkgirl landed on either side of him, delivering blows with their maces that glanced off of his armor, and he fired a cable of sorts from a device on his forearm, tying up Hawkgirl. She shtruggled with her bindings while Chronos engaged Hawkman, who ducked away from blade that ejected from a device mounted on Chronos’ left arm, one that very nearly got him in the chest. Chronos delivered a heavy kick to Hawkman’s chest, sending the reincarnated prince sprawling. Nightwing and Vixen moved into position, Vixen summoning the spirit of a gorilla while Nightwing split his baton into a pair of eskrima sticks. He engaged Chronos at point-blank range, keeping the man from using his massive cannon and even managing to knock said cannon to the ground. Vixen delivered a solid blow to the side of Chronos’ helmet, and he faltered before falling to the ground, unsteady on his feet. Nightwing quickly trapped him.

The fight had sparked something in Taer Al-Sahfer’s memories, and when she spoke, it was not as the Horseman of Ra’s al Ghul, but as Sara Lance, the White Canary, a Legend. “Wait!” she cried. She approached Chronos, pulling her own cowl away from her face and dropping it to the ground. “This guy’s been on our asses since we started this mission,” Sara said. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I want a good look at him before we send him packing.” Hawkman nodded grimly from where he had cut Hawkgirl loose. Ra’s had sent Talia away with an assassin and was now approaching with a degree of interest. Sara gripped the helmet of the temporal bounty hunter; the man Rip Hunter had said Oliver had aptly-named as a time-traveling counterpart to Slade Wilson and pulled it free. She stared down at the bearded visage of the man in front of her, ice-blue eyes widening as recognition set in. “Barry?”

Barry Allen stared stonily up at their gaping, shocked, and dismayed expressions. Observing all of this was Ra’s al Ghul, who merely said, “Intriguing…” **_*5*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> I fully admit that this chapter probably got very sickeningly sweet with all of the couple stuff, esp. between Oliver and Laurel. I ended up watching a Lauriver tribute video and a couple of scenes from the YouTube channel Katie Cassidy Daily and so I was a little emotional and needed an outlet. And yeah, I know, I’m turning into a complete sap.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* As much as it pained me to write this, realistically the Ninth Circle would at some point strike at too many targets at once for the heroes to be there in time to save.
> 
> *2* I’ll be honest: this scene came about because I watched a beautiful but heartbreaking Lauriver tribute and I needed a feel-good scene between these two afterward.
> 
> *3* If we go by SyFy’s Krypton, which I’m more or less acknowledging in this story, then rank is often earned through trials of combat, and Zod is canonically the top military leader of Krypton in most cases. As such, it stands to reason that he would have defeated Astra in combat at one point.
> 
> *4* I’m sure some people have been wondering about that, so I decided to make sure and have Oliver speculate on the matter, though we won’t find out for a while exactly who is behind this (partly because I’m not sure of it myself yet).
> 
> *5* Yup! The man Rip called a ruthless sadist who kills those who aren’t integral to the timeline without hesitation and Oliver called a time-traveling Slade Wilson is none other than Barry Allen! Been planning this reveal since Chapter 1!


	28. Resurfaced

Before they knew it, the contingent from the surface had been in Atlantis for the few days that had been allotted for this trip, having documented all that they could for the President and for the world to see. There _had_ been an attempt on the Ambassador’s life by a rogue squad of militant Atlanteans who, it was discovered from the interrogation, had been working on orders from their Xebelian handlers. It appeared that either Queen Alithia or King Ryus was intent on seeing this treaty fail by ensuring a death on the part of the human embassy.

The attack had been foiled by a mixture of the protective detail assigned by the president, Superman stepping into the line of fire and absorbing the attacks from the Atlantean energy weapons, and Green Lantern deploying a shield around the rest of the group that kept the energy blasts from getting close. Green Arrow and Black Canary had delivered their own attacks to their attackers, a sonic scream and a couple of arrows taking down more than a few of the attackers. Green Arrow had been able to recover his arrows, a rare treat, and so his quiver remained fully-stocked as they, along with Arthur, boarded the _Atlanna_ for the return trip, which would be under heavy guard until they were within an hour of Amnesty Bay thanks to the repeated attempts by the Xebelians to doom Arthur’s hoped-for treaty.

“Your Majesty, I have to say that this was perhaps the singular most impressive trip of my life, and I will treasure the memory of it always,” Horace Ford said to Arthur as they boarded the _Atlanna_. “I expect my report to the President will be glowing.”

“I am pleased,” Arthur said, and he certainly looked and sounded pleased as they moved through the ship to the quarters. “It has been our honor to host you and your embassy, Ambassador Ford, and it is my hope that this appointment might become permanent in the days and weeks to come.”

“If it does become permanent, Your Highness, I will endeavor to be the best bridge between our two peoples that I possibly can, but I suspect the onus of bridging that gap will be on your shoulders, as you are a child of two worlds,” Ford said as they came to a stop outside of the quarters they had had the last time. As before, the DSS and Secret Service agents assigned to Ford’s protection entered to sweep the room for any harmful devices. “I have to ask, what will you do regarding the trip to D.C.? Do you plan on traveling with us or with Mr. Queen’s party?”

“I will travel with my friends, I believe,” Arthur said. “This is no judgment against you. I merely wish to travel to the national capital in the company of friends, though I do hope the day will come when I can assign that appellation to you, Ambassador Ford.”

“Nothing would honor me more, Your Majesty,” Ford said. “I believe I will retire for the time being. Again, thank you for such a wondrous time in Atlantis. It will be a story to tell my grandchildren someday.”

“It is my hope that one day, there will be open travel between Atlantis and the surface world, and that all can experience the wonders that you have,” Arthur said. “For now, I will leave you to sort yourselves out. I will be on the bridge should any of you need to find me.” Arthur gave a nod of his head while the ambassador gave a light bow, and then he turned and walked away.

“Well,” Green Arrow said after a moment, “I’m going to take advantage of that military escort and change into some civilian clothes. I’ve been in this suit for almost the entire time. I might like what Q-Core came up with, but there’s a limit to how long you can wear a suit like this.”

“And as much as I like what black does for me, I’d like some color to my clothes for the next little while,” Black Canary added. “See you boys later.” She and Green Arrow retired to their own quarters and began undressing. “Oh, God, I never thought I’d be so sick of one outfit,” Laurel complained to Oliver as she peeled off her jeans. “I guess this is one of the downsides to the lives we’ve chosen. If we get tapped for protection detail, we don’t really get any off-time.”

“At least we get some now,” Oliver pointed out. “Clark and Hal have to remain in costume until we get to Amnesty Bay, get to the hotel as fast as they can, and be in their civvies before we get there.”

“So, what do you think the odds are that the president sees that picture we took and asks us to make it a public photo instead of one for our own private collection?” Laurel asked him.

Oliver sighed wearily. “Seeing as we’re a public ‘battle couple’, as Susan and Lois have dubbed us, and the only two public heroes who have just visited the Lost City of Atlantis, which will be a major feather in the president’s cap… I’d say the odds of that photo staying just for our private collection will be slim to nil.”

“I’m starting to see why you complain so much about being a public hero,” Laurel sighed as she dug out a gray pantsuit and white blouse from her luggage, standing by the bed in just her undergarments and looking very attractive to Oliver if someone were to ask him his opinion of his girlfriend’s current state of undress. “We really won’t have such a thing as a private life anymore, will we?”

“No,” Oliver said quietly, clad only in a pair of jeans as he walked over and pulled Laurel into a hug. “But I believe that we can face anything together.”

“I agree,” Laurel said, going up on her toes and kissing him. “Now, much as I’d like to collapse on the bed with you, I should get dressed before Hal and Clark come in. Clark would probably blush and apologize, but Hal is a perv who would enjoy the free show.”

“If you think Hal’s bad, wait until you meet John Constantine,” Oliver said dryly.

“He’s _worse_?” Laurel asked, more than a little horrified.

“Yup,” Oliver said.

“Oh, goodie,” Laurel said sarcastically as she finished buttoning her blouse and began pulling on her suit pants. “I can’t wait.”

Oliver chuckled. He had a feeling Constantine was going to get _slapped_ when he made a comment about Laurel, because as far as the latter was concerned, the only one allowed to make any sort of comments about her was Oliver himself. **_*1*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Sara Lance sat on the other side of the cell aboard the _Waverider_. “So, here we are again,” she said. “You know, one of these days, one of us is going to say something that you just have to react to, Barry.”

“That’s not my name,” Barry said tonelessly, staring off into space. “It’s Chronos.”

“Chronos is a fiction, a personality shoved into you by those bastard knock-off Time Lords, as Dick calls them,” Sara said, scowling. “You are _Barry Allen_ , the son of Henry and Nora Allen, and one of the most compassionate men I have ever met. You were there for me when my nightmares got to be too much, Barry, being away from my sister and Ollie. You’re the only one I have from my life in Starling City on this mission, and I’ll be damned if I lose you. You are a good man, and I’m going to help you remember. You are not just the Council’s killing machine. You are a good man, with a good heart, and one day, I’ll break you out of the Council’s control.”

“Why do you insist on calling me this Barry?” Barry asked. “Whoever he was, if he ever existed at all, he’s dead. There’s only Chronos, and I’m going to get out of here. Some, I can’t do anything about because they’re integral to the timeline. But you? You’re _nothing_. And your insistence in trying to convince me that I’m this ‘Barry Allen’ person only means that I am going to make your death exquisitely slow and memorable.”

“I survived two years alone in the League of Assassins without the protection of an Al Ghul,” Sara said calmly. “After the threat I faced every day there, a simple death threat like that is hardly gonna phase me, Barry. And I know that deep down you know that you are Barry Allen. But you’re afraid to admit it, because if you admit it, you admit that Barry Allen, when destroyed and remade, could be a killer. I know a little something about being turned into someone else’s weapon, Barry, and I’m not going to give up on you, just like Ollie and Laurel never gave up on me.” She stood. “I’ll be back later. Maybe I’ll bring you some food. Chinese sound good?” Barry was silent. “Dim sum for two it is. See you later, Barry.” She left the prison level and headed for her room, where she sat down on her bunk and closed her eyes, trying to fight the tears that wanted to well up. What had happened to him? What had happened to the fun, geeky, loveable guy that she had last seen just after they left Star City 2046?

“Hey, you okay?” Dick Grayson asked, concerned, from the doorway. After their first encounter, the two of them had become amiable companions, nothing more, and he was swiftly becoming Sara’s best friend aboard the _Waverider_ aside from Barry.

“Yeah, just… seeing Barry like this? It’s probably getting to me a little harder since I just went through a similar experience,” Sara said, wiping at her eyes as Dick entered the quarters they shared, sitting down on her bunk beside her. “But I think the biggest problem is how I feel about what’s been done to Barry by the Council, Dick. I mean, I knew when we started this mission that our goal was to kill Savage and stop the Council from manipulating our lives any more than they already have. That was the mission, and I accepted it. But just like any other mission, that’s all it was: a mission. But now, seeing what they did to Barry, one of the most loving and compassionate men I know, a man who had done _nothing_ to them but be the brains behind our brawn? I hate them, Dick. I _hate_ what they’ve done to Barry and I can’t wait to confront them.”

“Just remember not to confront them while you’re angry, Sara,” Dick cautioned. “That will only lead to you being in danger and maybe the rest of us. If you ever need to spar to get some of that excess negative energy out…”

“That actually sounds like a good idea right about now,” Sara admitted. “I’m sure the training room is available. The only other ones who use it are Carter and Kendra, and I’m pretty sure the lovebirds are dealing with their emotions about who Chronos is in a different way.”

“Let’s go, then,” Dick said, and he and Sara headed for the training room, even while Dick admitted silently to himself that he felt the same way Sara did about what had been done to Barry. Before, it was just about teaching some knock-off Time Lords that humanity wasn’t their plaything. But now? Now it was personal, because they had targeted one of Dick’s team, a member of the strange little family he had found himself a part of when joining the Legends. A family of a different sort from the one that he had shared with Bruce and Barbara, but a family, nonetheless.

And if there was one thing above all else every single scumbag in his life had ever learned, it was that you didn’t _fuck_ with Dick Grayson’s family. **_*2*_**

**_*DC*_ **

The _Atlanna_ broke the surface and maneuvered up to the dock of Amnesty Bay. More than a few took a moment to observe the sight that they had seen only once before, when the ship had come for those who had gone to the undersea kingdom. But then the moment passed, and the people of Amnesty Bay continued as they had been, many of them getting ready to cast off and head into the ocean for a day of fishing. The door to the _Atlanna_ slid open and the ramp extended. The Justice League preceded the rest of those who had visited Atlantis out of the _Atlanna_. After a brief survey of the world above that they hadn’t seen for days, Superman and Green Lantern took off so they could get back in their civilian clothes by the time Oliver, Laurel, Arthur, and the press contingent got to the motel.

“It may be cold as hell out, but I love the feeling of the wind on my skin right now,” Oliver confessed to Laurel as they headed down the dock towards the boardwalk and the parking lot where their rental cars were still waiting for them along with the government cars.

“I know what you mean,” Laurel said with a nod. “Atlantis was beautiful, but I missed the feeling of the sun, muted as it is in wintertime.” Once on the boardwalk, she and Oliver moved off to the side and she took a moment to close her eyes and just soak up the feeling of the sun, which was high in the sky. “Oh, that feels _so_ good,” she said, opening her green eyes again and smiling at Oliver. “But I guess it’ll be the last I get for a little while since we’ll probably be leaving town soon.”

“Yeah, we’ll need to head to D.C. ASAP,” Oliver said, moving towards the rental cars, where the press contingent and Arthur, who was clothed in the same apparel he had been when Oliver first met him, were waiting for them. “Let’s load up,” Oliver said. “We’ll swing by the motel, grab Clark and Hal, check out, and then get on our way back to the airfield.”

“Sounds good,” Lois said. “We can get back to our interviews now we’re back on dry land, Oliver.” Oliver grunted in agreement and Laurel laughed softly. She knew he had been hoping Lois would be so overwhelmed by the thought of revealing Atlantis to the world through her upcoming article, which would be released at the president’s say-so, that she would forget about their interview sessions for at least a little while. But apparently, Lois was a multitasker and always had been, something Clark had warned him about in private before they docked.

The public members of the Justice League and the press contingent got in their rental cars and pulled away, Oliver in the lead car and leading the way to the hotel, with Arthur, Laurel, and Lois in the car with him, Jimmy in the second car with Kenny and Susan. Soon enough, they were pulling up to the motel and found Hal and Clark standing outside of their rooms.

“So, you’re back,” Hal said, flawlessly acting the part of the man who had stayed behind while the rest of his traveling companions aside from Clark got to go on a wondrous adventure beneath the sea. “How was it?”

“Exciting,” Oliver said dryly. Trust Hal to play to the crowd. “We’ll be checking out and heading for the airfield soon. I want us in D.C. by this evening.”

“I’ll just go get packed, then,” Clark said with a smile from where he and Lois were pulling apart. While they might have been on the trip together, they hadn’t been able to express their affection for one another for days now, and they were making up for lost time, something Oliver hoped would delay Lois’ inquisition (though he somehow doubted it). Clark turned to enter his room, Lois following.

“We’re not gonna see them for a while,” Hal said dryly.

“Probably not,” Oliver said. “Arthur, do you need to grab anything?”

“I probably should go home, pack a few of my civilian clothes for the trip,” Arthur said. “I’ll meet you back here in, say, two hours?”

“Sounds good,” Oliver said. “in the meantime, I need to make some phone calls. My sisters are going to be _very_ worried even though I told them to be ready for me to disappear for a few days.”

“Good luck,” Arthur said cheerily before heading off, presumably to his home. Which, now that Oliver thought about it, none of them had ever seen. Oh, well. Everyone needed their private place.

Oliver pulled his phone out and activated it, noting Laurel was doing the same. No doubt she wanted to call her father and let him know she was safe. Oliver hoped Quentin was in a better mood than he had been the last time he and Laurel talked. He knew that the longer this went on, the more likely Quentin was to potentially fall off the wagon, and if he did that, well, Oliver had only heard rumors of the way he had treated Laurel after the _Gambit_ , and if even half of them were true, it could get pretty damn ugly, and that would hurt Laurel, having her father treat her that way for the second time in her life. If that did happen, Oliver would take action, because he refused to see his girlfriend hurt that way, especially after she had been so excited during their trip to Atlantis. 

Oliver checked the time. It was roughly the lunch hour at Berlanti Preparatory. He _should_ be able to reach Thea, though they wouldn’t be able to talk long. He selected Thea’s contact and hit the call icon before holding his phone up to his ear. Two rings later, Thea answered. “Ollie!?” she said excitedly.

“Hey, Speedy, just thought I’d let you know I’m back from my secret trip,” Oliver said with a smile at how excited his sister was to hear from him. “Laurel and I will need to go to D.C. for a few days, but after that, everything should be settled, and we’ll be on our way home. I’m looking forward to seeing you.”

“I can’t wait for you and Laurel to be back, Ollie,” Thea said, sniffling. “Everyone’s talking about the two of you, you know. There’s been headlines like, ‘Where is the Battle Couple of Amnesty Bay’? Laurel’s face has been plastered all over the papers along with yours. You should probably tell her she’s not gonna get much break from the news people now.”

“She already knows,” Oliver said. “But I’ll be sure to pass along the warning of what’s been happening, assuming Quentin isn’t telling her.” Laurel had an intent expression on her face, as though she was listening to something important. He hoped it wasn’t anything bad that Quentin was telling her. “I know you’ve got a class coming up, Thea, so I’ll let you go now. But I wanted to let you know I was back and safe.”

“Thanks, Ollie,” Thea said. “But one thing before you go… Roy asked me to go to a movie. We paid for our own tickets and concessions and everything, so it wasn’t _really_ a date, but… what was it that drew us together?”

“I honestly don’t know, Thea,” Oliver said. “I’m sorry. I wish I could tell you.” He couldn’t say much more since Susan was nearby, her keen ears perked and ready. “But if you and Roy are meant to be, it’ll happen, just like Laurel and me. I love you, Speedy, but I gotta call Emiko.”

“Okay, Ollie,” Thea said with a sigh. “I’m glad you’re safe. Bye.”

“Bye,” Oliver said before hanging up. He brought up his contacts list again, selected Emiko’s number, and hit the call icon, bringing his phone to his ear again.

“Oliver,” Emiko said as she answered, sounding subdued.

“What’s wrong?” Oliver asked, his gut wrenching. He knew something had to be wrong.

“Things here have been… bad,” Emiko said. “The Ninth Circle… they’ve been hitting target after target, and sometimes they hit too many for us to save at once. We’ve sent the information to Detective Lance and he sends cops to intervene, but most of the time all that means is wounded or dead cops along with a dead target. We’ve lost fifteen people that we were meant to save, Oliver. I’m so sorry. You trusted us to protect the city, and we’re failing.”

“Even I wouldn’t be able to be everywhere at once, Emiko,” Oliver said soothingly. “What matters is you saved those that you could. And I’ll be back soon. That should have the Ninth Circle scurrying back into the shadows if what you think is right. Just wait a few more days, Emiko, and do what you can until then.”

“I will, Oliver,” Emiko promised. “And so, will Rene and Ted. Henry’s been a huge help, as well.”

“How are things at Queen Consolidated?” Oliver asked.

“Good, better than good,” Emiko replied. “Our stock has never been stronger, and that’s even without the groundbreaking for the new renewable energy project’s facility later this month. Bruce Wayne has already informed us that he’ll be coming out for the groundbreaking to say a few words. Should we expect you to do the same?”

“I think this time, I’ll leave it to Bruce,” Oliver said with a small grin. “I get the feeling my hands are going to be full in the next few weeks.”

“Alright, I’ll make a note of it,” Emiko said. “I will say things have been easier in patrols since Q-Core finished the suits for Ted and Rene. We can each now handle the Ninth Circle on our own instead of lumped together like we had to at the start.”

“Good,” Oliver said. “Anything else I should know? I’ll be heading to D.C. in a couple of hours for more Justice League business. Is there anything I need to do there for Queen Consolidated?”

“There’s some gala the President is apparently planning, but I’m guessing that’ll be something you have to attend as the leader of the Justice League, not the C.E.O. of Queen Consolidated,” Emiko replied.

“Gala, huh?” Oliver said. “Thanks for the heads-up. I guess he’s really going all-in on this. Anything else?”

“No,” Emiko said. “Good luck in D.C., Oliver. I-I love you.” It was the first time she had said the words aloud to him.

Oliver smiled affectionately. “I love you, too, Emiko,” he said quietly. “Goodbye.”

“Bye,” Emiko said quickly and hung up, probably before her emotions got the better of her. **_*3*_**

Oliver pocketed his phone and looked over at Laurel, who was staring off into space with a haunted expression on her face. Concerned, he went over to his girlfriend and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She jumped, recognized who it was, and melted into his embrace. “Hey, you okay?” he asked. “Did your dad say something?”

“No, no, I was checking my messages before calling Dad,” Laurel said. “I-I got a message from the District Attorney’s office. It was to tell me they’ve set a date for the Huntsman’s trial. It’s in a couple of weeks.”

“You’ll be able to face him, Laurel,” Oliver said encouragingly, pressing a kiss to her forehead like he had more than once during the trip to Atlantis. “You faced him down and beat the hell out of him. The only hold he has on you is up here.” He tapped the side of her head. “Going through with this will help you beat that, and at the end of the trial, he’ll be sent to Slabside for life.” **_*4*_**

“Thanks, Ollie,” Laurel said softly. “Think we can get away with an hour on our own in the motel?”

“I think we can do that,” Oliver said agreeably. He and Laurel went into their hotel room, ignoring the knowing look that Hal Jordan shot them and the exasperated sigh of Susan Williams, who had been planning to ask them for an impromptu interview to add to the final part of their footage from Atlantis. Oh, well. There would be time on the trip to the airfield and the flight to D.C.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* There really wasn’t much to the attempt made on the ambassador when I tried to write it, so I decided to summarize the rest of the trip to Atlantis.
> 
> *2* I thought it would be a nice way of mirroring Sara coming out of her own darkness in “Rise” for her to take over trying to help someone come out of theirs and for that someone to be Barry, since part of that will eventually lead to them forming a relationship. And yes, Sara and Dick slept together, because he’s DICK GRAYSON, but it never went further than a one-night stand. But they are, as said in the story, swiftly becoming best friends of a sort.
> 
> *3* I realized that I haven’t really had Oliver and Emiko say they love one another. I mean, Oliver has said he loves Emiko like the sister she is to him, but he hasn’t said, “I love you,” and neither has she. It’s kind of an important detail. So, yeah… I figured it was about time to add that.
> 
> *4* And so, the Huntsman is about to show up again, albeit as the defendant at a trial. For those wondering: the trial will be Episode 15. We’re currently on Episode 13.


	29. Debrief

Oliver Queen was up early the next morning and quickly dressed, grimacing when he realized that if he were called to a meeting with the President that he wouldn’t have a suit to wear. So, he settled for a pair of slacks and a sweater along with his black winter coat. Laurel was still sleeping, and a smile tugged at his lips at seeing her like this. She was becoming a fierce warrior and was now a metahuman, like her counterpart from Earth-2, the _first_ metahuman of Earth-1. That had to be wearing on her and yet she took it in stride along with all of the other strange and unusual things that had sent her life into upheaval since Oliver had traversed time and come back into her life without the belief that he needed to push her away. But now, while she was sleeping, she was so relaxed and worry-free, and she looked so very _young_. Oliver still started sometimes when he looked in the mirror and saw how young _he_ looked. In truth, that was probably the real reason he had grown out the beard, not that he would tell anyone; it helped him seem older.

Laurel woke up a half-hour later, and Oliver ordered room service, including a fresh pot of coffee, while Laurel was in the shower. It arrived just as she was stepping out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around her torso and another one around the top of her head. “Good morning,” Oliver said with a smile as he wheeled the room service cart further into the room, having given the busboy a hefty tip for quick service. “There’s fresh coffee, and I ordered you blueberry pancakes.”

“Thanks, Ollie,” Laurel said with a small smile, pouring herself a cup of coffee and mixing in her preferred levels of creamer and sugar. Once she had taken a sip, she focused on dressing for the day: today it was a casual sweater and blue skinny jeans with her winter boots. Once that was done, she combed her hair, did her make-up, and sat down for breakfast with Oliver, who had waited for her. As he set their plates down on the table, she smiled when she saw he had gotten waffles with sausage links and breakfast potatoes on the side. “So, what are your plans for today?”

“I need to go out and buy a suit,” Oliver said. “I didn’t pack one because all it was supposed to be was a few days in a sea-side community and I didn’t want to come across as elitist by packing an Armani or Brioni. Oh, and I’m probably gonna have to get everyone outfitted. Emiko told me there’s some gala the president is throwing, and I suspect it’s to do with Arthur and Atlantis.”

“Oh, good,” Laurel said with a sigh. “More publicity.”

“Welcome to my life, pretty bird,” Oliver said. “Though I suppose the fact he’s throwing this gala means he’s going to be doing whatever he can to forge this friendship between the U.S. and Atlantis. That should give Arthur some leverage in negotiations. The President is staking a lot on this; he’s not gonna want to see it fall through.” Oliver shook his head ruefully. “I know he’s a politician who wants to leave a lasting legacy, but I can’t help but think this is gonna cause some serious backlash. And I want you to be careful, Laurel.”

“Me?” Laurel asked in surprise.

“Right now, you are the only known metahuman,” Oliver said. “There are going to be people who want to study you, whether you agree or not. Just… be careful while we’re here, okay? I don’t want to lose you.”

“You won’t,” Laurel promised as she dug into her pancakes, eggs, and bacon. “And I’ll keep an eye out.” The two ate their breakfast, enjoying this simple luxury of being alone for breakfast that they hadn’t had for the entire trip to Atlantis, where they were always ‘suited up’ and on guard, eating in a large group with everyone else. Being alone again was… nice. “I tried calling Dad a couple of times last night. He didn’t pick up. I’m worried, Ollie. I-I think he’s really mad at me, for doing what I did, maybe even for being what I am.”

“Your father loves you, Laurel,” Oliver said soothingly, reaching across the table and taking her hand, squeezing it reassuringly.

“Sometimes, I’m not so sure,” Laurel said, looking down. “I always told myself that he and Mom provided Sara and I with a stable home, but this silence from him is waking up some bad memories, like how I was always held to a higher standard and expected to keep Sara safe and out of trouble, and how they reacted when I didn’t live up to their expectations. But the worst was after the _Gambit_ sank.” Laurel took a deep, calming breath. “More than once, Dad would introduce me to whatever bartender as ‘the daughter who lived’, as if he wished it was me on the _Gambit_ instead of Sara. And when I started letting Tommy back into my life and thought about taking a job in San Francisco, he outright asked if I was some kind of gold-digger. That hurt, Ollie, and this-this is so much more than losing Sara on the _Gambit_. This is about one of his daughters being an active vigilante and a freak of nature.” **_*1*_**

“You are _not_ a freak of nature,” Oliver said firmly, scooting his chair around the table so he was right beside Laurel. He pulled her into a sideways hug, and she leaned against him. “You are a beautiful, passionate young woman who has proven time and again that she has an innate sense of justice, something Quentin fostered in you with how he raised you and Sara. If he has a problem with how you find that justice, that’s on him. And I swear, if he calls you a freak, I’ll make sure he’s forced into rehab, one way or the other, because you are _not_ a freak, Laurel. Being a metahuman doesn’t mean being a freak. It means you’re _gifted_. You haven’t changed from the beautiful, passionate young woman I fell in love with all of those years ago. You’ve just grown more beautiful, more passionate, and I for one am glad you have another trick up your sleeve. It means I worry less about you in a fight.”

Laurel smiled. “Thanks, Ollie,” she said. “I just wish I knew what Dad was thinking.”

**_*DC*_ **

Quentin Lance ignored Lucas Hilton’s judging eyes as he sipped at a brandy he had smuggled into the precinct. “I don’t care what you think,” Quentin said snappily to his partner of over a decade. “I need it to take the edge off, especially with-with them back in the spotlight.” The news had reported the arrival of Oliver Queen and Laurel Lance in Washington D.C., which hadn’t helped Quentin’s mood any. The more he thought about everything, the more his mind went back to the image of Laurel, his Laurel, his little girl, blowing those monsters apart with her _voice_. Laurel and Sara had both been such gentle girls. How had one become an assassin and the other a vigilante? Where had he gone wrong as a parent, that his daughters would _both_ throw away everything he had given them and embrace anarchy? _Where had he gone wrong?_ “What’ve we got?” Quentin asked roughly.

“We got an anonymous tip about that Vertigo guy,” Hilton said, knowing better than to confront Quentin when he had alcohol in his system, however small an amount. “Detective Hall from Narcotics is coming by later to brief us.”

“Anonymous tip,” Quentin repeated. “It’s Queen, isn’t it? He somehow figured out where The Count is manufacturing that shit despite being on the other side of the country.” Hilton looked uncomfortable. “Why am I not surprised? Though, I suppose he probably figured it out before he left and just waited until it was obvious that we would have to handle it. Fine. Let me know when Hall’s here. I’m gonna do some paperwork.” He pulled out a stack of half-finished reports and started on them, focusing on good, honest police work and trying to ignore the fact that his daughter was probably gonna be honored by the president for what she had done, a fact that would have filled him with pride under any other circumstances. That he would have felt pride in Laurel for standing by who she was raised to be, even if it was in a way that he didn’t completely agree with, if he weren’t drinking never even crossed his mind. **_*2*_**

**_*DC*_ **

“Sara?” Barry’s voice was weak, tremulous even, but there was no sign of the hard edge that had been present throughout their long discussions where she told him about her life in the League of Assassins and he in turn threatened to kill her in several different and creative ways. Sara, who had been rambling about a mission with Nyssa in Morocco, paused and looked at him. “Oh, God,” Barry whispered. “What have I done?”

“Barry?” Sara asked, kneeling and looking in the cell. There were tears shining in Barry’s eyes, trickling down his cheeks and into his beard. “Barry, listen to me: I know what you’re thinking, but it wasn’t you. It was the Council, and the personality they implanted over you. You’re not to blame for what you did.”

“I should’ve been stronger,” Barry said, looking up at Sara. “I deserve to be in this cell, Sara. I killed so many people that I didn’t have to, just because they saw me doing what I was told to do by the Council. All those people, all those lives cut short… How can I live with myself, live with the things that I’ve done?”

Sara hesitated for a moment, and then she waved a hand over the door-side console, opening the cell. She entered, ignoring the alarms that blared in the ship as she moved and crouched in front of Barry. “It’s not easy, coming back from the darkness, Barry,” she said softly. “I’m _still_ on that path. If you want, I can help you learn how to deal with it. My way may not be the best way, but it’s the only way I know how.” She set a hand on his knee. “The fact that you’re showing remorse for those people is good, Barry. It shows that the good person I’ve been trying to remind you of is still in there, somewhere. Why now, though?”

“I’ve been listening to you for hours on end, Sara,” Barry whispered. “I could hear you, but I couldn’t fight past Chronos and let you know I was there. But I could feel him weakening. I could feel him weakening with every story you told, every word of kindness you gave me. Your voice was like a lighthouse on the dark ocean, guiding me to safe harbor.” Sara flushed slightly. “It’s why Chronos became so… creative in his threats. He could feel himself weakening, feel me taking back control of my body.”

“Good,” Sara said.

“How did you know he wasn’t tricking you by pretending to be me?” Barry asked, his green eyes meeting Sara’s blue ones. “How did you know he wasn’t just tricking you into getting close?”

“The thing about being an assassin is that you get really good at reading people,” Sara said as the rest of the crew arrived, armed and armored. “Chronos has a certain… air about him. You? You have a genuineness that’s all your own, Barry Allen, and that’s what I saw and heard. That’s why I knew it was safe to come in here. Because Barry Allen, my friend, Ollie’s friend, would never hurt me.”

“Thank you,” Barry said, “for not giving up on me. But I still belong in this cell for what I did, for what Chronos did.”

“I didn’t believe Sara could truly penetrate the Council’s indoctrination,” Rip said. “But it appears I was wrong. While I would like it if you stayed here for a few more days, just to be sure it’s worn off, I see no reason to confine you permanently to the cell when you’ve regained your sense of self, Barry. Welcome back.”

“Yeah, man, good to see you coming back to us,” Dick Grayson said. “Sara’s been worried sick about you and what the Council did to you. Maybe now she’ll finally sleep and not run herself ragged.” Sara shot him a poisonous look and he shrugged. He was just telling the truth as he saw it.

“It’s good to see you back, Barry,” Kendra said with a smile, removing her helmet.

“Glad we didn’t have to kill each other,” Carter added as he removed his own.

“So, gonna keep the beard?” Dick asked.

“No,” Barry said firmly. “As soon as I’m free to leave, that’s one thing that’s going. All it’ll do is remind me of-of who I was.” Dick nodded sympathetically and decided he would take the other man aside, help him learn how to deal with an inner darkness, the way that Bruce had taught him.

Sara stood, and placed a hand on Barry’s shoulder. “Welcome back,” she said, giving his shoulder a squeeze before she left the cell, which closed behind her. **_*3*_**

**_*DC*_ **

“You do realize I don’t have any way to pay you back?” Arthur Curry said as he and Oliver left the suit shop and got back into the sedan that they had rented at the airport (well, one of them). “This is an expensive suit, Oliver, more expensive than anything I own.”

“Well, you’re going to need it for your meetings with the President, and I’m afraid that there might be a gala of sorts I have to outfit everyone for, so you’ll also be getting a tuxedo out of this,” Oliver said. “As much as I hate it, image is everything to some people and if you expect them to treat you _as_ the monarch you are, you have to look the part, not be dressed in a hoodie and some jeans.”

“I understand,” Arthur said. “But I wish to repay you somehow.”

“I have an idea on that,” Oliver said, before telling Arthur exactly what that was.

“I may be able to accommodate that,” Arthur said with a smile. “You are a good man, Oliver Queen.”

“So people keep telling me,” Oliver said as they headed through traffic back to the Marriott hotel they were staying at. “But what’s the use of being a billionaire if I can’t help out my friends?”

“I suspect you are a rarity in that, Oliver,” Arthur said.

“Yeah, I suppose so,” Oliver said, knowing the kind of hijinks Bruce Wayne got up to in his public persona. But he did take care of his people in the field, from the sounds of it. Robin and Batgirl, before she vanished, both appeared well-armed and armored in the few photos of them Oliver could find. Seeing as they were trained by Batman, they didn’t exactly stick around and pose for photos. One of the many privileges of not being a public hero like Oliver and now Laurel were.

When Arthur and Oliver returned to their floor of the hotel, they found a pair of government agents waiting. “Mr. Queen, the President has requested we bring you to him,” one of the agents said. “He wants to get your impressions of Atlantis and everything else before he meets with the King of Atlantis.” The fact the agent said that with a straight face indicated he was either a no-nonsense type or had been practicing saying that the entire way here. He looked Oliver up-and-down. “You’ll need to get into that suit you have,” he said. “We’ll wait.”

“I appreciate it,” Oliver said.

**_*DC*_ **

A half an hour later, Oliver was seated in the waiting room outside of the Oval Office, feeling more than a little nervous about the upcoming meeting. Was it going to be just the President, or would be essentially debriefing the top military leaders as well? Oliver’s anxiety grew slightly when Amanda Waller arrived and took a seat beside him. “Oliver,” Waller greeted.

“Amanda,” Oliver returned. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. I’m guessing the President convinced you and Director Lane not to push things in Amnesty Bay by agreeing you could sit in on my debriefing, so to speak?”

“Indeed,” Waller replied. “I saw Director Lane arriving as I came in. He’ll be here soon.”

“Good to know,” Oliver said. The two sat in what could only be described as an uncomfortable silence as a balding man with reddish hair arrived and took a seat on the other side of Oliver. He busied himself with something on his phone. Assuming this was Director Samuel Lane of the D.E.O., he apparently wasn’t one for small talk, which suited Oliver just fine. He _hated_ small talk.

“Director Lane, Director Waller, Mr. Queen, the president will see you now,” said the secretary. The three stood and made their way to the door to the Oval Office, where they were all searched one last time for any kind of weaponry (Oliver more so than the two directors), and then they were let into the Oval Office where President Trumbull was waiting with his Vice President, Robert Kinsey. The president directed them to the couches in the center of the room, with he and the vice president sitting on one while Oliver, Waller, and Lane sat on the other.

“Thank you all for coming,” President Trumbull said. “I asked Directors Waller and Lane to be a part of this, Mr. Queen, because their agencies need to be aware of your activities. The same could be said of other agencies, but we’ll start with A.R.G.U.S. and the D.E.O. for now. I’m expanding the authority of the latter to deal with the potential threats from beneath the surface and, indeed, the potential of others developing superpowers like your girlfriend has.”

“I see,” Oliver said slowly. “Well, I understand your need for caution and preparation, Mr. President. But I assure you that Laurel won’t be a threat.”

“She destroyed over five of those ‘Trenchers’ with her voice, Mr. Queen,” Robert Kinsey said, his tone frosty. “That kind of power is a threat, regardless of how good a person Miss Lance may be. We need some assurances that she won’t turn on the people. Perhaps her movements should be monitored.”

“If you have to monitor her, you have to monitor the entire Justice League, and I believe it’s already been made clear that that won’t be happening, Mr. Vice President,” Oliver returned just as frostily. “We operate independently of the government while acting in its interests against extraordinary threats. Laurel Lance is not a threat. She used her power to drive the Trench away from Amnesty Bay, saving thousands of lives. She is not a _threat_ , but a _hero_ , and I won’t hear a word said against her or any of the other members of the Justice League.”

“Calm down, Robert, we’ve already discussed this,” Trumbull said patiently. “I’m sorry, Mr. Queen, I thought we had already gotten over this. It won’t be brought up again.” He leveled a look at first Kinsey, then Lane and Waller for good measure. “Now, what was your impression of Atlantis and it’s people?”

“Well, the people were understandably frightened of what our presence meant, and so we didn’t have much interaction with the common citizen, just those who lived and worked in the palace,” Oliver said. “Of those we met, some were intrigued by Arthur’s plans while some… some were terrified, and like anyone, their terror caused them to do something stupid, as I’m sure Ambassador Ford has already told you about. The attack on us was put down quickly, though, and no one but the Atlanteans behind the attack were hurt. We later learned that the interrogation had revealed they were, in fact, working on behalf of Xebel, a rival kingdom under the sea. They began as a penal colony, and over the centuries have grown to hate both Atlantis and the surface in equal measure.”

“How likely is it that rogue Atlanteans would attack us?” Sam Lane asked.

“They would first have to get access to military ships, which isn’t easy, and then evade the rest of the Alantis battle fleet,” Oliver said. “More than likely, any _Atlantean_ separatists would perish before ever reaching American soil. But the Xebelians are relentless, and they do not wish to see this treaty succeed. They tried three times that we are aware of to stop the diplomatic process: an attack on the _Atlanna_ while we were en route to Atlantis, the assassination attempt by Atlantean dissidents backed by Xebelian interests, and according to King Arthur, there were sensor ghosts consistent with Xebelian stealth technology following us on our return trip for a good amount of time before breaking away.”

“Do you think this treaty can be done, Mr. Queen?” President Trumbull asked.

“I do,” Oliver said with a nod. “King Arthur is an honorable man who wishes to see his two worlds reunited in as much as they can be. He will do what he must to see that dream become a reality. I can see him being open to a full embassy in Atlantis for the U.S., and I suspect he’ll expect the same in exchange here in D.C. Probably somewhere near the water, since that’s where the Atlanteans are the strongest.”

Trumbull nodded. “We’ll begin looking into that ahead of our meetings with him, which will begin tomorrow. I expect the Justice League will be providing his security?” Oliver nodded. “Good. Still, I’d like to assign some DSS agents to him for the time being.”

“I’m sure he’ll be happy to accommodate, Mr. President,” Oliver said.

“Now, on a related matter, Jack Churchill shared with me the photo he took for you and Miss Lance while you were touring the palace of Atlantis,” Trumbull said. “Mr. Queen, I cannot emphasize enough how much of a selling point that photograph would be. America’s two most-celebrated heroes posed in front of the vast expanse of Atlantis? It would go a great deal in soothing over any ruffled feathers when we reveal Atlantis to the world.”

“Laurel and I talked about this possibility and understand that being the world’s only public heroes comes with certain sacrifices,” Oliver said. “We know what that photo could mean to the world accepting Atlantis, and so we’ll allow it to be used. We still expect a copy for our own private photo collections, of course.”

“Of course, of course,” Trumbull said. “Thank you for being willing to make that choice, Mr. Queen. What other observations have you got for us regarding Atlantis?”

“Well, once all is said and done, there’s probably going to be many petitions from archaeologists and anthropologists to visit Atlantis,” Oliver said. “Especially once they get a glimpse of the Atlantis Archives, which have records dating back 5,000 years.”

“Impressive,” Trumbull admitted. “But in the end, it will have to be up to the Atlanteans to decide if they will accept such visitors. I suspect that, at least for the short-term, yours and other diplomatic visits will be all that happens between our two peoples.”

“And if the Atlanteans were to turn on us? Where do you rate our chances, Mr. Queen?” Director Lane asked. Waller raised an eyebrow, showing she was curious as well.

“Atlantis hosts a population of roughly five million,” Oliver replied. “Because of the constant state of affairs between them and Xebel, even the common citizen is trained in basic combat should the day ever come that Xebel attacks Atlantis in a full-scale assault. Atlantis has a fleet of vessels that can strike from beneath the surface of the ocean, made of sturdier metals than we have access to, and they also possess energy weapons. It was only because of Superman’s invulnerability and Green Lantern producing a shield for the rest of us that we overwhelmed the one attack we faced. While humans outnumber Atlanteans quite a bit, the world is three-quarters water. That’s their world, not ours, and they would have the advantage. But I do not believe we will ever face such an issue with Atlantis. Xebel, yes; but with an alliance with Atlantis, Xebel will think twice about attacking us. They would not wish to fight a war on two fronts.”

Sam Lane sat back, nodding and looking distinctly unhappy. Waller also looked displeased. Oliver had a funny feeling that A.R.G.U.S. and D.E.O. affiliated scientists would be working on energy weapons and protective shield technology before the week was out.

The debriefing continued, with Oliver answering all questions posed to him but maintaining his belief that they did not need to worry about Atlantean attacks. He hoped that he was convincing, as it would dictate how the president responded to Arthur. He knew the gala was a double-edged sword: on the one hand, it could be used to welcome Atlantis officially back into the world. On the other, it could be used to rally the support needed to create defenses against potential incursions from the sea.

Washington D.C. had plenty of attractions, but it was also the biggest pit of corruption that Oliver had ever been to, a viper’s nest with the viper coiled to strike if it sensed weakness. Oliver had a feeling that his time in Washington D.C. would be much more strenuous than his time in Atlantis. **_*4*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* As much as I love Quentin and Laurel’s dynamic, there’s no denying that looked at objectively, their relationship was incredibly troubled throughout Laurel’s life and Quentin only really understood how much she meant to him when she was gone. As such, I feel Laurel would have struggles with confidence in herself and her status because of fear of how her father would react.
> 
> *2* Yup, Quentin’s falling off of the wagon. I debated whether or not I would do this, wondering if it would be considered melodrama, but the truth is, after all the strange and unusual things that have happened since Oliver came back, Quentin would definitely be likely to fall off the wagon. So, yeah, unfortunately we’re going to see more of the Quentin we saw in 3x14, so be prepared for that.
> 
> *3* I hope everyone enjoyed this scene. I did toy with the idea that Chronos/Barry was tricking Sara and would attack her when she got close, but in the end I decided that the time she’s spent would begin wearing him down and bring Barry back to the surface. Oh, and the whole ‘personality implant’ thing is borrowed from “Knights of the Old Republic”, where the Jedi Council implanted a new identity on a badly-injured Revan.
> 
> *4* Not all is well in the nation’s capital. Robert Kinsey is a shout-out to the character from Stargate SG-1, who was an antagonist throughout the series, especially towards Jack O’Neill. And as we can see, Waller and Lane are *concerned* about potential threats. 


	30. Unveiling

Oliver Queen, Laurel Lance, Arthur Curry, Hal Jordan, Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Susan Williams, and Kenny McCormick were all seated on the couches in Oliver and Laurel’s room at the Marriott, with the television turned on to a news channel and waiting for the President’s announcement to the world that Atlantis existed to air. The negotiations between the President and Arthur had lasted for four days, and it had essentially boiled down to having embassies on the other’s soil and being there to aid the other in times of crisis, whether through military aid or otherwise. Since America did _not_ possess technologies comparable to Atlantis, technology trades would be off the table for the time being. It helped that, technically, the U.S. couldn’t receive weapons technology anyways since ‘laser weapons’ were among the many things outlawed for development by the Geneva Conventions. That was going to cause an issue on the world stage since Arthur would certainly refuse to limit his society when they were not officially a part of the surface world and never could be. **_*1*_**

So, now, they waited for the moment when Arthur and his people would be revealed to the world. Arthur was understandably anxious, though he had relaxed some since the treaty negotiation had succeeded and there was now an alliance between Atlantis and a surface nation. But the next few days would dictate how the rest of the nations of the world reacted to the existence of Atlantis. There would undoubtedly be those who _feared_ the existence of Atlantis, just as there were those who feared the existence of Superman, who feared the existence of Green Lantern, who likely feared Laurel’s metahuman power. But Oliver had hope that the majority of humanity would be _awed_ by the existence of Atlantis, and he tried to instill the same hope in the other members of the Justice League.

Clark easily went along with it, being the embodiment of a Kryptonian noble house whose sigil was the Kryptonian symbol for hope. Hal, Laurel, and Arthur were a little more cautious. Laurel had met a few people who were frightened of her simply because of what she had done on the news, and Oliver had had to hold his girlfriend while she vented her frustrations at being judged for having a difference in genetics. Oliver had a feeling that this was going to become a huge thing for Laurel, and there wasn’t a more passionate champion metahumans could find than Dinah Laurel Lance.

The seal of the President of the United States appeared on the screen, and a moment later, Trumbull appeared, seated behind his desk in the Oval Office. “This message is being broadcast to the entire world, because it will effect the entire world with its content,” President Trumbull said. “A few short weeks ago, we learned that we are not alone in the universe, that a member of the Justice League is in fact an alien from another world who has lived among us for thirty-three years. Now, I come to you with the startling revelation that we haven’t been alone on this planet for thousands of years. The Battle of Amnesty Bay proved that there is sentient life in the oceans that surround our great nations. The world itself is three-quarters water, and I have learned that there are foreign powers beneath the surface of the ocean. Where did I get this information? One of the newest recruits to the Justice League, codenamed Aquaman.

“Aquaman is not simply an empowered individual the same as the Black Canary, Laurel Lance. He is a monarch of one of these underwater foreign powers. Specifically, the lost city of Atlantis. I sent a diplomatic envoy along with the Justice League to visit and document Atlantis for proof of what I am telling you now. Atlantis is real, and it rests beneath the ocean. The Trench, the force that attacked Amnesty Bay, is another of these kingdoms, and is the most volatile of the three kingdoms that exist beneath the surface of our oceans. They are an enemy to both of the other kingdoms, just as they are to be considered a hostile foreign power to us. But for the past four days, I have been in talks with Aquaman, the King of Atlantis, to forge an alliance between the surface and the lost kingdom.

“Those talks have succeeded, and this evening, there will be a special broadcast unveiling Atlantis and it’s wonders to the world. An embassy will soon be built for the Atlanteans here in Washington D.C., as an American embassy will be established in Atlantis per the treaty we have formed. We are not alone in the universe, and we are not alone on this world. This is an exhilarating and perhaps terrifying time to be alive. The world as we know it is changing, and we must change with it or be caught by the tides of change and forced to do so. As we move into this brave new era, questions will be asked about what purpose we serve in this new world, what kind of lives we should expect to live in a world where aliens and Atlanteans walk among us. Those questions and more will be addressed by the _Daily Planet_ ’s Lois Lane and Channel 52’s Susan Williams, who both accompanied the diplomatic envoy to Atlantis. Know that the United States stands to serve as an example of what we hope to see the world become. Good day, and God bless us all.” The presidential seal returned to the screen, followed by the picture that Oliver and Laurel had had taken of themselves, in uniform (so to speak), standing in front of the expanse of Atlantis. It was an admittedly powerful image and spoke to the veracity of the president’s claims, showing the world’s two public heroes standing in an underwater city.

Each of those present in Oliver and Laurel’s hotel room felt something as they listened to the address.

Oliver Queen felt a sense of wonder and trepidation as he watched yet another world-changing event occur in this new timeline that had been created. Wonder because so much was happening that hadn’t happened before, the least of which was Laurel developing her metahuman abilities when she hadn’t in the previous timeline. There were so many new factors in the world that Oliver knew he would never be able to keep up with all of them and he would have to rely on men like Clark, Hal, and Arthur to deal with the upcoming headaches. But he also felt trepidation because, as he had told Laurel in Atlantis, none of this had happened before. Superman had never stepped out of the shadows. Fort Rozz crashing to Earth and the formation of the D.E.O. had never happened before. There had been no attack on Amnesty Bay that resulted in a diplomatic mission to Atlantis. There had been a dramatic shift away from the world Oliver had known and been semi-comfortable with, and he was beginning to be more than a little unnerved. He looked forward to returning to Starling City and the common troubles of dealing with the List and the Ninth Circle. He also knew that that photo would be making the rounds of every news outlet and major publication before the week was out.

Laurel Lance, like her boyfriend, felt a sense of wonder and exhilaration go through her. She agreed with the president that this was an exciting time to be alive. She took Oliver’s hand, squeezing it gently, knowing that he was thinking of how the world was changing, like he had told her about in Atlantis. No doubt he was struggling with all that was happening beneath that calm façade he showed the world. Later, when they were alone, she would let him talk to her about how he was really feeling about the situation.

Arthur Curry felt a small sense of pride at seeing the wonders of his city displayed following the president’s address in the form of Oliver and Laurel’s picture, but he also felt a sense of trepidation, because now there was no turning back. The world now knew that Atlantis was real, that it endured, and that it was more technologically advanced than any nation on the surface of the world. Awe, fear, envy, hatred… all of these would be felt to some degree by humanity in the face of such a revelation, even if many would put forth pleasant demeanors to show how progressive and forward thinking they were. Luckily, Arthur had had plenty of experience dealing with two-faced jackals in the court of Atlantis.

Hal Jordan was mentally compiling the report he would have to send to Oa about the paradigm shift on Earth that was occurring with the debut of Superman, the arrival of Fort Rozz, and now the Battle of Amnesty Bay. He knew that the Guardians would want to know about everything, and he was obligated as a Green Lantern to give a full and unedited report to them regarding the situation. Depending on how things played out, this sector might receive _more_ Lanterns to help police it since it was likely Hal would be occupied with events here on Earth for the foreseeable future.

Clark Kent found himself thinking of all the changes wrought on the world and wondered if any of this had happened in the last timeline, the one Oliver had come from. He decided he would get with Oliver later and ask that question. If not, then there _had_ to be something at work beyond the changes Oliver had made, because nothing Oliver had done could have caused the arrival of Fort Rozz or the Battle of Amnesty Bay. Those were changes beyond the scope of one man’s power. But Clark couldn’t deny that the reporter in him was excited to be living in a time where all these wondrous things were happening, even if he couldn’t report on any of it since he hadn’t been on the Atlantis trip as Clark Kent, but as Superman. One of the sacrifices he was making in being a hero was that he didn’t have as many scoops, instead allowing Lois the spotlight on that front. Besides, with Kara now in his life, he would have to scale back his time at the _Daily Planet_ as it was. His cousin needed him.

Lois Lane was smug in the knowledge that tomorrow’s headline for the _Daily Planet_ would be about Atlantis and be the first in a series of articles she would be writing about the rediscovered kingdom under the sea. She already had the first three ready to go and, now that the President had revealed the truth to the world, she could send those articles to Perry for final approval, which she would be doing as soon as she and Clark got back to their hotel room. _Pulitzer, here I come!_

Susan Williams, like Lois, was feeling smug in the knowledge that people would be turning to her for answers to some of these burning questions about the world they now lived in, where aliens and Atlanteans walked amongst the people. When she had invited herself along on Oliver’s trip to Amnesty Bay, she had never imagined that _this_ would be the story she would walk away with. She had thought the Battle of Amnesty Bay would be the top story of her career, but she was wrong. _This_ , the unveiling of Atlantis, would be the story that made her career and made her a household name like Lois Lane.

Kenny McCormick was both excited and terrified after the president’s announcement. Excited because it meant his footage would soon be seen; terrified because he worried that he had somehow screwed up. But most of all, he was relieved, because he had made it through the Battle of Amnesty Bay and the diplomatic trip to Atlantis without getting killed, something he had worried would happen because of the situations Ms. Williams was putting him in. He swore that when they got back to Starling he was going to ask for a different position. They owed him that much for what he was bringing back. He was _done_ with field work. The next time, he might not be so lucky. **_*2*_**

Much like the Justice League and their associates, reactions to the president’s announcement were happening around the world, not all of them good.

**_*DC*_ **

Ra’s al Ghul had once more been called to the section of Nanda Parbat charged with monitoring the world. He watched as the President of the United States unveiled the fact that Atlantis had endured in the depths of the oceans and continued to be an empire, and a technologically-advanced one at that. At the sight of Atlantis in the photo shown of Oliver Queen and his Beloved, Ra’s’ brows drew together. This was not what he had expected. He had assumed that the Atlanteans had adapted to their changed circumstances but remained living in the buildings that had sunk to the depths. Instead, it appeared they had advanced despite their limitations to a point beyond any nation now living above the surface of the world.

Nyssa al Ghul, standing near her father, was terrified of the changes happening throughout the world, though she did her best to maintain the calm façade expected of the Heir to the Demon. Only a few short months ago, all had been right in the world. The League were _the_ force to go to for ensuring the removal of evil from the world, and the worst that had happened was learning that Al Sa-Her had betrayed the Code of Conduct he swore to abide by. Now, aliens flew around saving people, Atlantis had returned, and the world looked to the Justice League to protect them from that which they feared or did not understand. Nyssa couldn’t help but feel that the fault for all of this could be laid at the feet of one man: Oliver Queen. She was beginning to understand Al Zil’s hatred for the man he had once called ‘brother’. When she saw the image of Oliver Queen with Laurel Lance in front of what appeared to be the city of Atlantis as it now stood, she supposed it was for the best that Al Zil was currently on his first mission to a third-world country to kill a warlord with Al-Owal supervising. She suspected he would not take this revelation well.

**_*DC*_ **

Damien Darhk was silent as he listened to the president reveal that Atlantis was once more rising as a prominent power in the world, aligning with the United States. He was at one of H.I.V.E.’s bases while watching the broadcast and he would be here for some time afterward, he supposed, because it wouldn’t do for his wife and daughter to see him in the towering temper that he was working himself towards. Luckily, H.I.V.E. had plenty of prisoners he could _have fun_ with. When he saw the picture of Oliver Queen and Laurel Lance in front of the expanse of Atlantis, he sighed. “Well, this is certainly a wrinkle,” he said to himself. Atlantis was more technologically advanced than any nation on Earth, and they were not only aligned with the United States, but the Justice League would likely have the army of Atlantis as their beck and call seeing as their King was a member of the Justice League.

Darhk headed for the prison level of the base. He needed to de-stress before he went home to be with his wife and daughter. **_*3*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Bruce Wayne was not a man who was shocked easily, but the President’s announcement certainly qualified for the category of things that could shock him. Not that Atlantis was real; he had learned that it had been when he had trained under Ra’s al Ghul, during a darker period of his life. There was a reason he didn’t kill, after all. But to know Atlantis had somehow endured in the depths of the ocean, and advanced beyond any nation on Earth? That was something that would have to be factored into his dealings with the Justice League, whether he joined them or not, since the King of Atlantis was a member of Queen’s League.

Bruce mused briefly over how Ra’s was taking this. The Demon’s Head would not be happy about something that upset the delicate balance of the world, but Atlantis was undoubtedly out of the reach of the League of Assassins. It could likely see the League redoubling their efforts to maintain the balance between good and evil in the surface world. Bruce would have to be watchful for new activity from the League, both in Gotham and elsewhere. He had been blindsided by Malcolm Merlyn revealing the League’s existence to the world along with the fact that the man had been a member of the League at one point. And now he, like so many others, had been blindsided by the existence of Atlantis.

The world was changing and had been ever since Oliver Queen was publicly exposed as the Green Arrow, and Bruce wasn’t sure he could keep up with all of the changes in the world on his own. Perhaps it was time to seriously consider the offer that Queen had made him. At the very least, it would keep him in the circle of knowledge that Queen had, and Queen seemed to be involved with _all_ of the strange and unusual things that had been happening since his exposure as Green Arrow. Perhaps he should join the Justice League to keep an eye on Queen and all of the others he was recruiting, since they appeared to be a rising decisive power, far beyond the ‘government-sponsored team of heroes’ they had been purported to be in the beginning. The Justice League were becoming very powerful, very quickly, and someone needed to keep an eye on them, making sure that they didn’t become corrupted by their own power.

If Bruce’s life had taught him anything, it was that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

**_*DC*_ **

Lex Luthor leaned back in his leather armchair, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. So, it was true. Atlantis was not only real, but it endured and was a ‘rival nation’ to the Trench, who had attacked Amnesty Bay. That was interesting. What interested him more, though, and slightly irritated him at the same time was the fact that Atlantis was clearly centuries ahead of them in terms of technological advancement, and for whatever reason the president hadn’t thought to include one of the world’s foremost scientific minds (namely, Lex Luthor) in the diplomatic envoy to Atlantis. Well, there would be more diplomatic overtures now that they were allies, and Lex was certain he could finagle an invitation to the eighth wonder of the world.

**_*DC*_ **

Emiko Queen had been watching the president’s address with the rest of Queen Consolidated’s Applied Sciences division, all of them knowing whatever he had to say would have something to do with what the company’s C.E.O. had been up to for the past week. Now, with the revelation that Atlantis was not only a real place but that the C.E.O. of Queen Consolidated had visited it with his girlfriend and had had a picture taken of them that would soon be immortalized online, was mind-boggling. With everything that had happened in the world, Emiko thought she would have become immune to the craziness that seemed to dominate her brother’s life, and yet she was once again surprised at something involving him. Perhaps she should just accept that her brother was always going to find new ways to startle and amaze her, whether that was regarding the depth of his compassion or the length and breadth of his heroic streak.

Emiko could hear the reactions the rest of the division were having and sympathized with them. This was startling news. It was one thing to accept that alien life existed; it was quite another to realize that they had shared the planet with another civilization for thousands of years and had never known about it. “Unreal,” she heard Cisco Ramon murmur in a wondering tone.

“This is some next-level craziness,” Curtis Holt agreed from next to him.

“I would say keep your minds on the tasks at hand, but even I’m struggling with this,” Dr. Briggs admitted.

Emiko could see that this was the case with most of her workers and knew that none of them would be getting any work done today. “Considering the impact of what we just heard,” she said, drawing attention to her, “I think it’s safe to say none of us are going to get any work done today. If you feel you need to take some time off to deal with this, you can do so now.”

“I think I’ll take you up on that,” Cisco murmured and wandered off. More than a few scientists followed his lead. Emiko herself was going to go to the Quiver and get a beer out of the fridge that Oliver kept stocked “just in case.” After this latest bout of insanity from her brother, she needed it.

**_*DC*_ **

Thea Queen sat, stunned, along with all of her classmates and teacher as the president’s announcement unfolded, revealing that Atlantis was real and that Thea’s _brother_ had been there with his girlfriend on Justice League business. The picture of Ollie and Laurel with the technologically-advanced city of Atlantis laid out behind them was burned into Thea’s mind. How did this get to be there life? It couldn’t just be Ollie time traveling, right? There had to be something else, some cosmic force that was fucking with them by throwing all of this craziness into their lives. Right? **_*4*_**

**_*DC*_ **

It was evening in Paris, France, and Diana Prince had just gotten back home from another long shift at the Louvre when it was announced there would be a world-wide announcement from the President of the United States. Diana watched as the U.S. president unveiled the reality that humanity was not alone on this Earth and that Atlantis still existed. The sight of Atlantis beneath the ocean, laid out behind Oliver Queen and Laurel Lance, took Diana’s breath away. It was amazing that the Atlanteans had advanced so far, and, indeed, that they had advanced at all. By comparison, the Amazons had remained the same for all of these centuries. While Diana was quite proud to be an Amazon, it wasn’t hard to acknowledge that both humanity and the Atlanteans would look upon her mother and sisters as being primitive due to their adherence to the ancient forms of combat.

Unless, of course, someone had forced the issue of advancing after their encounter with the Germans and the arrival of Steve Trevor. They’d had the weapons of the Germans to examine and learn from if they _had_ decided to advance. It’s not like Diana had returned to her home, caught up as she was in the beauty of the modern world. There was also the small but important fact that she had slept most of their journey from Themyscira to London and therefore didn’t know precisely _where_ Themyscira was. She had thought it was lost to her but if the unveiling of Atlantis was proof of anything, it was that nothing was ever truly lost forever.

**_*DC*_ **

Slade Wilson had heard that the President of the United States would be making a special announcement and decided that he would watch it in private. It was probably for the best, considering the content. Atlantis, the lost empire, was no longer lost and was returning in part due to Oliver Queen. Oliver would now have an alliance with the King of Atlantis, which meant he could conceivably call on the army of Atlantis if Slade was too overt in his actions against him. It would be just like the kid, to let someone else fight his battles. When the picture of Oliver and his beloved Laurel appeared on the screen, Slade’s brown eye narrowed in hate and his right hand gripped into a fist, the thumb rubbing up and down his clenched pointer finger as rage coursed through him.

Slade studied the image of the man he had once called brother and the woman he loved so dearly that he had betrayed their little family in the hopes of restoring the woman’s sister to her and earning her forgiveness. As much as Slade hated Oliver, he hated Laurel Lance more, because without her and her sister, Shado would still be alive. Slade would take his time with Miss Lance, though he would have to make sure she was appropriately gagged. As exquisite as her unhindered screams might be, her sonic scream would be a weapon that she wouldn’t hesitate to exploit in escaping from him. She would have to be gagged while he tortured her to death as the final move against Oliver. That would not change, no matter what else he had to do to break Oliver. The final breaking would come from knowing his beloved Laurel died screaming in agony. **_*5*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Dru-Zod had watched the broadcast from their tap into the human communications network in the safety of Fort Rozz. That there was a civilization on this world nearly as advanced as Krypton had been was troubling and needed to be factored into his plans. They would have to be dealt with after the humans, and this guaranteed that his conquest would need to start in Metropolis, a land-locked city where the King of Atlantis would be limited in what he could contribute.

**_*DC*_ **

Quentin Lance’s eyelid was twitching slightly and his form was trembling as the latest insanity was delivered to them by none other than the President of the United States. Hilton, Pike, and recent M.C.U. transfer McKenna Hall (who Pike had poached from Narcotics after her success with the M.C.U. team in taking down the Count and his Vertigo processing facility) were all eyeing Quentin with some concern. They had noticed he wasn’t taking all the changes too well, and Hilton had informed Pike that Quentin was now drinking on the job. It was something Pike would have to crack down on him for if it became a problem, and if it did, Pike had a bad feeling it was going to involve the man’s next meeting with either his daughter or the man he would probably be calling his son-in-law one day.

After the image of Oliver and Laurel with Atlantis sprawled out behind them popped up on the screen, Quentin turned and left the squad room, heading to the rooftop access. He made it all the way out onto the roof before he collapsed to his knees and kept muttering, “Why?” over and over even as he uncapped his brandy.

Meanwhile, back in the squad room, McKenna Hall was accepting her winnings on the office bet that Quentin wouldn’t take the President’s announcement well. Most had believed Quentin was suitably desensitized to the strange shit that surrounded Oliver Queen and, by extension, his eldest daughter. **_*6*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* I remember reading somewhere that the development of laser weapons was prohibited by the Geneva Conventions along with the development of biological weapons and the like. I might be wrong, and if I am, well, good thing this is a fictional world, eh?
> 
> *2* I hope everyone enjoyed the reactions of the Justice League and their press contacts. I fully admit Kenny’s reaction was purely for the laughs since he’s named after the character on South Park and he managed to survive the entire trip.
> 
> *3* Writing the Ra’s, Nyssa, and Darhk reactions was kind of fun. Re: Nyssa’s reaction: Season 3 showcased that Nyssa led a rather sheltered existence. I think she would react poorly to all of the things that have been happening. Darhk, of course, is a sadistic bastard who tortures people when he feels blue.
> 
> *4* I thought the contrast between Bruce and Lex’s reactions, and then Emiko and Thea’s reactions, would be fun to showcase.
> 
> *5* It is canon that Mirakuru!Slade has a thing for tormenting and killing women, as evidenced by the way he twists Thea up, tries to do the same with Laurel by telling her Ollie is the Arrow, kills Moira, and later tries to kill Laurel and Felicity. So, IMO, it is not out of the realm of possibility that he would be planning something as sadistic as torturing Laurel to death as part of his amended revenge plans.
> 
> *6* Zod is plotting, always plotting… meanwhile, poor Quentin continues to fall off the wagon and become more than a little unhinged by all of the crazy shit going on in the world. I honestly feel sorry for him, because this certainly isn’t going to stop.


	31. Meltdown

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This chapter is the end of the Aquaman/Atlantis story arc and the final chapter of the current episode arc. It makes it a good place to stop and take a rest. What I have planned for the rest of the story is more or less equally epic, and I *need* a really good break before I start tackling it. This doesn’t mean I won’t be writing, though. I’ve been working on a new project that returns Oliver to his roots which will begin being posted tomorrow, though I don’t know yet if I’ll post it first thing in the morning or in the afternoon/evening. We’ll see. 

Oliver Queen was currently leaning back in his seat on the Queen Consolidated jet as it ascended, pulling away from the private airfield where they had left Arthur Curry, who Oliver had arranged transport for while en route to Maine from Washington D.C. Their time in D.C. had been filled with all sorts of political nastiness, as far as Oliver was concerned. First, he had had to arrange for liaisons with several major agencies for the Justice League so that everyone was on the same page. Alex Danvers would be their liaison with the D.E.O.; Lyla Michaels their liaison with A.R.G.U.S.; Cameron Chase (no relationship to Adrian) would be their C.I.A. contact; Darius Trimble, who had been assigned to D.C. in disgrace, would now be their F.B.I. contact; Naomi Singh would be their N.S.A. contact; and finally, Steven Hackett would be their contact with the Defense Intelligence Agency run by General Roy Stewart, Diggle’s stepfather. **_*1*_**

All in all, going to all of those meetings had taken up most of Oliver’s time when he and the rest of the League wasn’t playing bodyguard for Arthur during his meetings with the President to forge the treaty between America and Atlantis. Then, the gala had happened, during which an assassin had taken aim at not Arthur, but Trumbull. Arthur had spotted the laser dot and tackled Trumbull to the ground, taking the bullet in his shoulder for his trouble, and Clark had ducked away so that Superman could apprehend the assassin, who he had delivered with his broken weapon to the Secret Service. The assassin, David Cain, had been interrogated by A.R.G.U.S. and revealed he had been hired by none other than Vice President Kinsey, who had grown frustrated with how much President Trumbull listened to Oliver and how he had been marginalized despite having helped Trumbull secure a key voting bloc. The investigation had been taken over by the F.B.I., who were working to uncover every member of the conspiracy, since Cain had to have had help to infiltrate the gala.

But now they were leaving all of that behind and, in a few hours, they would be landing in Starling City, which had its own worries. According to Emiko, the Ninth Circle had fallen silent after the unveiling of Atlantis. At the same time, Laurel _still_ hadn’t gotten in touch with her father since that heated conversation they had had the evening following the Battle of Amnesty Bay, and she was worrying over her father’s mental state. Oliver, meanwhile, was more worried about what Quentin having an extreme negative reaction to everything (but especially to Laurel’s abilities and status in the Justice League) would do to his girlfriend. Laurel was a strong, independent woman, but Oliver knew she had problems with her self-worth. It was why she had agonized over deciding to cut Dinah out of her life, despite knowing it would mean the end of any chance for reconciliation for her family. And having her father blast her with negativity was probably the one thing that could drive Laurel over the edge and run the greatest risk of her descending into alcoholism. Which was why Oliver had insisted he be there when Laurel talked to her father when they returned. If Quentin was going to blast anyone with negativity, it was going to be Oliver, not Laurel. 

“Oliver?” He turned from where he had been looking out the window to see Lois standing nearby, one of her handy recording devices at the ready. “Think we could talk a bit more about your time away?”

“Sure, Lois,” Oliver said. “We might as well. We have nothing but time right now.”

“Great,” Lois said with a grin, settling into the seat across from him. “Alright, I believe we left off with you and your friends, the Yamashiros, trying to evade the government agency you have history with…”

**_*DC*_ **

Dinah Laurel Lance entered the 16th Precinct where her father worked, trying not to let the awed and occasionally fearful looks she was receiving get to her. It had taken her quite a bit of talking to Oliver when they got home at noon to let her do this on her own. He was worried about how she would take it if her father had been drinking, but Laurel had dealt with her father’s drunken animosity for five years, during which he had done such things as identify her as the ‘daughter who lived’ in a tone that suggested he wished that wasn’t the case and outright called her a gold-digger for being at Tommy’s party and considering the San Francisco offer. She could handle her father without Ollie; more than that, she _needed_ to.

The squad room fell silent as they noticed her entering and making her way to her father’s desk. Quentin was focused on his paperwork, and Laurel could tell just from the way he held himself, the way his penmanship appeared to be sloppy, that he had been drinking, which meant this was going to be a lot harder. She stopped by his desk, took a deep breath, and said, “Hi, Daddy.” Quentin’s hand froze in place, and he looked up slowly, meeting her eyes with his own. Laurel swallowed as she saw the flinty look in his eyes, knowing from past experience that this was gonna be one of the bad days. “I’m back,” she said weakly.

“Yeah,” Quentin said slowly. “Back from your nice little sea-side getaway with absolutely no craziness?” The dark sarcasm almost made Laurel flinch. “I’m surprised you even came to tell me you were back.”

“I figured it was the only way we could talk, since you haven’t been picking up when I call,” Laurel said softly. “Daddy, can we go somewhere private, talk about this?”

“What’s there to talk about?” Quentin bit out. “I told you, I warned you, that getting involved with Queen was gonna lead you into more and more danger. And now look! You were right in the middle of a battle, and he’s turned you into some kind of freak!” Laurel flinched back at hearing the words she had hoped and prayed that she wouldn’t hear from her father. It was hard enough to have gone to that gala and heard the whispered comments and deal with Lex Luthor asking if she would help him with his experiments. But to have her own father, the man who had raised her, call her a freak… Laurel swallowed the lump in her throat and refused to let the tears filling her eyes fall. “But it’s just one more thing in a long line of things you’ve done that I don’t understand,” Quentin huffed.

“Daddy, I…” Laurel began, trailing off because she had no idea what to say.

Quentin, meanwhile, had plenty to say. “First, you get involved with Queen even though he’s turned you into a danger magnet. Then you start getting vigilante training, supposedly for self-defense, but I know better, I _knew_ that you were gonna get involved with Queen and the others he’s got running around the city while he’s gallivanting off elsewhere! You ruin any chance at reconciliation with your mother while you forgive Queen for what he did! You let Sara go off God-knows-where on some secret mission for Queen, and act like I can’t figure that out! You are her older sister! You’re supposed to _protect_ her, not send her off on crazy missions! And then there’s the biggest thing: you become a goddamned vigilante and join Queen’s national band of merry men to be their pet female representation along with being a goddamned freak!”

Laurel flinched back, but now her anger was rising, and with that anger came a desire to lash out with everything that she had buried for five years. “I ‘got involved’ with Oliver because I love him!” she snapped. “I always have, and I always will! I needed the training just to keep myself safe, but yes, I was already planning on joining him in the field when he and Sara told me I was ready, because this city needs heroes to stand up for it, especially with how _corrupt_ the S.C.P.D. is! I forgave Oliver because he’s _changed_ , and because he went through hell and suffered far more than anyone should, the same as Sara! That’s why I forgave _both of them_ for betraying me like that! It helps that both of them _apologized_ for doing what they did, which Mom didn’t even have the guts to do! She acted like coming clean was enough! She basically _told_ Sara to blow up my relationship with Oliver, _knowing_ it would destroy me! And it did! But I wasn’t allowed to grieve or deal with my problems because I had to look after _you_ and deal with your drunken animosity for five fucking years! Sara _chose_ to go on the mission, and she is an adult who has the right to choose her own path! I, for one, am _proud_ that she’s grown so much that she would sacrifice being here with us to go on the mission! You raised us both to be headstrong and stand up for what’s right, but now you’re angry that we’re doing so? You’re such a goddamned hypocrite! And as for your biased and misogynistic comment that I’m just _female representation_ in the Justice League, none of them treat me as an inferior, which is apparently more than can be said for my own _father_!”

With that final word, spat with such defiance and vitriol to condemn her father for his attitude, Laurel reared back and slapped Quentin, who had stood during his tirade, so hard that his head jerked to the side. Laurel stormed out of the squad room, ignoring Quentin’s shout of her name and wiping at her eyes. She made it to her car and peeled out of the parking space and down the road before Quentin could make it out of the precinct, assuming he had even tried to chase her. Laurel focused on driving, not letting herself think of the words her father had said or what she had said in response because if she did, she would break down and probably end up crashing her car. **_*2*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver had just finished unpacking when he heard a rapid knocking on his front door. He recognized that knock, had heard it a hundred times when Laurel was upset. He moved quickly to the door and opened it to find a teary-eyed Laurel standing on the other side, her mascara running down both cheeks and her face red from crying. Without saying a word, Oliver pulled her into his arms and kicked the door shut as he led her to the couch. He held her as she finally let loose deep, shuddering sobs, even as an anger grew in his stomach at Quentin Lance. Laurel was one of the kindest, most selfless people he knew and, after the Battle of Amnesty Bay, also one of the bravest. For her to be like this after talking with Quentin, it _had_ to be bad. “It’s alright,” he said soothingly, running his fingers through her honey-blonde hair and kissing her forehead. “It’s alright. I got you. I got you.”

He continued to hold Laurel close as she sobbed, her tears soaking his shoulder. Oliver closed his eyes, listening to the sound and hating it. He kept whispering sweet nothings to her, letting her know that she wasn’t alone, that he had her and that he wasn’t going to let go. Finally, Laurel’s sobs subsided. “Sorry,” she mumbled, hiccupping.

“Laurel, you have nothing to be sorry about,” Oliver said strongly. “Now, I won’t push, but if you need to talk…”

“He hates me,” Laurel said miserably. “He hates my choices, what I’ve become, everything!”

“Your father doesn’t hate you, Laurel,” Oliver said, pulling her close again. “Had he been drinking?” She nodded against his shoulder. “Then he probably didn’t mean the things he said. He was just angry and lashing out.”

“He called me a freak,” Laurel whispered, and Oliver’s stomach clenched. “He’s known me my whole life, told me he loves me unconditionally, but my Dad called me a freak, Ollie. And he said I was just female representation in the Justice League, a _pet_. How could he say that to me, Ollie?”

“Well, you know that’s not true, right?” Oliver said, stroking her head. “You’re not a freak; you’re a human being who happens to have an extra gene that makes you special, and you have thoughts and feelings, too, just like your father does. And you’re not just token representation on the Justice League. You _earned_ your place in the League, Laurel. Without you, I’d be dead, and probably others, too. You turned the tide of battle. _Never_ forget that.”

“I don’t think things are gonna be good between Dad and I,” Laurel admitted. “I-I told him I couldn’t grieve or be angry because I had to be there for him for five years and I-I slapped him before I left. I was just so-so angry, Ollie, so angry at how he was blaming me for everything that’s gone wrong.”

“Tell me everything,” Oliver said, “if you feel you can.”

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver entered the 16th Precinct with a determined expression on his face. The officers who saw him veered out of his way, not wanting to tangle with the Emerald Archer with how he was looking. Oliver entered the squad room and made a beeline for Quentin Lance’s desk. “We need to talk, Quentin,” Oliver said, and there was nothing friendly or respectful in his tone as there had been in the past, regardless of Quentin’s animosity towards him. Quentin reacted to hearing Oliver’s voice instantly. He leaped up and threw a clumsy punch at Oliver, who caught the punch and then twisted Quentin’s arm, slamming him down on his own desk and trapping him there. “That won’t be happening anytime soon,” Oliver said flatly. A few cops looked like they were thinking of intervening, but a warning look from both Oliver and their lieutenant, Frank Pike, had them backing away and just watching the confrontation that was sure to be ugly, like Quentin’s argument with his daughter had been. “I just spent the past hour with a crying girlfriend because she believes her father _hates_ her.”

“You think you can get away with attacking a cop, Queen!” Quentin raged.

“Look around you, Quentin,” Oliver said softly. “No one is lifting a damn finger to help you because _you_ are in the wrong and they know it. Let’s start from the top: Laurel didn’t forgive your ex-wife because she betrayed Laurel in a way that was far worse than Sara and I did. Laurel wasn’t too happy with me recruiting Sara for the mission that I did, but she understood it after hearing what was at stake and couldn’t be more proud of Sara, something you would be if you weren’t a drunken miserable husk. You raised two head-strong, passionate, independent young women to believe in doing what is right and they are following their hearts in that regard. You should be proud of them, not raging at them. You want to rage at someone? You come at me, Quentin. But you don’t insult your daughter, make her feel worthless, batter down her self-confidence. If this is what Laurel’s put up with for five years, no wonder her sense of self-worth has been so fragile.”

“You don’t get to tell me how to deal with my family, Queen!” Quentin grunted.

“I do,” Oliver said firmly. “I do when I have to hold my girlfriend while she cries herself to sleep, thinking her father hates her. I swear to God, Quentin, if she does something drastic because of what you said, I will send you into the deepest, darkest hole known to humanity and leave you there to rot away ignominiously. But before we get that far, I’m going to try to help you. Lieutenant Pike.”

“Mr. Queen?” Pike said guardedly.

“I will no longer be accepting Detective Lance as my liaison with the S.C.P.D.,” Oliver said, “seeing as his daughter will be joining my local team as well as the Justice League, and he has proven unable to keep his opinions there to himself while he is in his current state. And if he continues to degrade her, I will use all of my considerable power to ensure he can’t even get a job as a security guard at Wal-Mart. Get him the help he needs or get ready to take his badge. Because I’m not going to allow him to hurt his daughter any further than he already has with his drunken rages. That’s not even addressing the fact that you’ve been _letting_ him drink on the job. Get him the help he needs, or I will, and I won’t be nice about it.” Oliver forcibly searched Quentin for his brandy, which he then threw against the wall, where it smashed. “I expect you to do the same thing to any other alcohol he smuggles into the precinct, _Lieutenant,_ ” Oliver said icily as he released Quentin.

Quentin tried to swing again, but this time found himself blocked by a pair of officers at a signal from Pike. “Take him to the back, let him sleep it off in a cell,” Pike said wearily.

Oliver nodded shortly. “In the short-term, Lieutenant, the Commissioner will have to find someone who won’t have the same issues with either myself or Laurel to liaise with my local team. Unless, of course, you make sure Quentin gets into a treatment facility as soon as possible, in which case Detective Hilton can continue in his stead until such a time as he has recovered from his most recent bout of alcoholism and received counseling regarding everything that has happened recently.” Oliver turned on his heel and walked out, ignoring Quentin’s protests as he was dragged to the back cells. He had hated doing that, since he remembered Quentin being the best father figure he had had, but apparently there were a lot of things he hadn’t known about Quentin’s ugly side and he wasn’t going to let that hurt Laurel any further. **_*3*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Laurel Lance entered C.N.R.I. the next morning, the first to arrive, as she always was, and made her way to her office, where a stack of reports was waiting for her on her desk. She sighed, letting her purse slight down onto the ground beside her desk, and she pulled the first report off of the stack, expecting all of these would be about the settlements C.N.R.I. had gotten pushed through in part thanks to the debut of the Canary Cry scaring the hell out of the scumbags they were prosecuting. She had also heard from her father’s partner last night that Quentin was being suspended and would only be reinstated if he got help. Hilton would be taking him to a rehab facility today; apparently, Oliver had shown up and given Pike an ultimatum, and no one was wanting to mess with the man who had led the Justice League in the successful defense of Amnesty Bay against the Trenchers. It helped that her father’s behavior had seen his relationships degrade over the years and the only thing that had kept him from losing his job was Pike protecting him, something Laurel knew all too well. But apparently, Ollie wasn’t going to let Pike get away with giving her father a slap on the wrist this time and was forcing them to act to get her father help. What saddened Laurel was that it was the thought of losing his job, not what he had said to her, that had her father going to rehab.

_Don’t think about that,_ she told herself sternly and focused her attention on finding out what had been going on while she was away. Adrian had been handling her cases for her, and as she read through the files, she had to admit she was impressed. Adrian had really stepped up to the plate while she had been gone and helped everyone with their cases. Considering her role in the Justice League, she should make Adrian something like Deputy Director of C.N.R.I., give him some official standing to act on C.N.R.I.’s behalf when she couldn’t. She would call him into her office when he got in and talk to him about it.

As she read through the files, the office slowly filled, many of her attorneys waving or coming by to welcome her back. It warmed her heart to know that, at least with C.N.R.I., there was no fear of what she could do. Eventually, Adrian was the one coming through the door. “Welcome back, Laurel,” Adrian said with a smile.

“Thank you, Adrian,” Laurel said, almost finished with the last file. “Come in and take a seat. There’s something I want to talk to you about. Just give me a moment to finish this file.” The file in question was about an attempt by Cyrus Vanch to get out of prison on a technicality. Adrian had successfully argued the case to put him back behind bars in Slabside, knowing this had been an important win for C.N.R.I. when it happened, and for Laurel in particular. Finally, Laurel closed the folder. “Adrian, I’ve been going over everything that’s been happening since I left a couple of weeks ago. You really stepped up to the plate while I was gone and took on burdens that you didn’t have to. I would like to make you Deputy Director of C.N.R.I.”

Adrian blinked. “What would that mean?” he asked.

“It would mean that if and when I’m called away for business with the Justice League, you would be in charge, as you basically have been the past two weeks,” Laurel said. “You would receive a pay bump retroactive to the day I left for Amnesty Bay, because you’ve already been acting in this manner for C.N.R.I. while I was gone. This is just to make it official.”

“Well, I’d be honored,” Adrian said.

“Good, I’ll get the paperwork ready to make it official,” Laurel said with a smile. “Thank you for agreeing to do this, Adrian.”

“Is there anything else you want to discuss?” Adrian asked.

“No, that was all,” Laurel said. “Unless any new cases have come in you think I would be interested in.”

“There haven’t been many new cases,” Adrian said, “probably because people are running scared of the Black Canary even without her being here.” He grinned at Laurel, who gave a small smile even as a thrill of unease shot through her. She knew that even though she had the _authority_ to act thanks to being a member of Ollie’s team, the Bar Association may take a dim view of her prior alliance with Oliver when he had been a vigilante acting outside of the law. She was surprised they hadn’t come after her when Oliver was exposed since the news had covered the fact she had been arrested and then given immunity from prosecution. But that concerned her all the more. Either the Bar Association accepted what was going on in Starling, or they were getting ready to hit her, and hit her hard.

Either way, Laurel could see a future where she was no longer practicing law, and she didn’t know how she felt about that. **_*4*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver Queen was going over the paperwork that had piled up while he was away the past two weeks on Justice League business, his right hand already sore from all of the times he had signed his name after thoroughly reading a report that needed his signature, when his phone buzzed. “Mr. Queen, there’s a man here to see you,” Mark Snow said. “He says his name is Dante and that you have business to discuss.”

“Send him in,” Oliver said, closing the folder and standing, circling around his desk as Dante, a leading member of the Ninth Circle, entered. “Dante,” he greeted.

“Oliver,” Dante greeted, his tone cordial. “I’ve heard much about you from Emiko before she parted ways with me. How is she?”

“About what you probably expect, scared and wondering if the Ninth Circle is going to kill her for her betrayal,” Oliver said. “She told me what you people do to turncoats.”

“Yes, normally, we would be hunting her down and making an example out of her,” Dante said. “But recent events must be taken into account. I will be blunt, Oliver. The Ninth Circle cannot afford to antagonize a man who has an alliance with Atlantis, which is technologically superior to us and will be for many years to come. We are retreating from Starling City and removing ourselves from the employ of the Council of Time Masters. Emiko and her mother will not be harmed for the same reason. As it is, she is a low-level member. If she had had greater access to the Ninth Circle and its dealings, than perhaps things would be different.”

“You’re leaving? Just like that?” Oliver asked.

“We know when we’ve been dealt a bad hand and know when to fold, Oliver,” Dante said. “But the Ninth Circle will be watching what you do, you and your alliance of freaks. You are changing the world rapidly, and we must change with it. You will not see us again.”

“I see,” Oliver said. “Just know I’ll be keeping an eye out. If I even _smell_ something that sounds like the Ninth Circle…”

“You won’t,” Dante said. “The Circle is unanimous in this decision. We will not antagonize a man who has the power that you do. Goodbye, Oliver.” Dante turned and left the office, leaving Oliver staring after him and wondering if the Council would seek another organization to finish the job or if they would redouble their efforts that the Legends would have to counter. **_*5*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* Cameron Chase appeared in the Toyman episode of Supergirl Season 1 as an F.B.I. agent. Naomi Singh is a member of Q-Core in the comics. Steven Hackett is a shout-out to Mass Effect 2 and 3.
> 
> *2* This scene was so, so hard to write because I love the father-daughter chemistry between Paul and Katie on the show. But there’s no denying there are serious problems between Quentin and Laurel throughout the series until her death, and especially when he’s drinking. I think that if something had happened in the show like what’s happened in my series here, it would’ve seen a return to the very ugly relationship they had in the 3x14 flashbacks, maybe even worse.
> 
> *3* Obviously, Oliver wasn’t going to take what happened with Laurel lying down and he’s too physically expressive a person to be satisfied with just words. But it helps that Quentin’s kind of made the situation bad for himself at the precinct.
> 
> *4* The Bar Association more or less suspended Laurel’s law license for her addiction issues in S2, as I recall. They’re definitely gonna have something to say about her well-publicized relationship with an active vigilante, not to mention her becoming one herself, and she knows this.
> 
> *5* So, I was talking with the folks on the Lauriver Discord, and we came to the conclusion that after seeing Atlantis and it’s power, the Ninth Circle would have no wish to antagonize Oliver by continuing to operate in his city and stop attacking the people on the Time Masters’ list. This was a surprise thing for me, but after I decided to do the Atlantis arc, it was pretty much guaranteed to have an effect.


	32. Paradigm Shift

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Okay, so, I wanted everyone to know I’m taking a new tactic regarding how I post. Both “Emerald Archer” and “Age of Heroes” is written in an episodic format, with each episode split over two or more chapters. I’ve decided that from now on I will wait for an ‘episode’ to be finished before I begin posting. If I reach the end of posting an episode’s chapters and the next episode is not yet complete, I will not post the next chapter until the episode it belongs to is complete. This does mean that in terms of the storyline, you will get uninterrupted posting for each episode. Just there might be a delay if I have a couple of bad days where I get no writing done.

Oliver Queen entered the Quiver with a smile on his face as he found his team waiting for him. “So, I heard you’ve been busy while I’ve been gone,” he said to Rene, Ted, and Emiko (the latter of whom he hadn’t been able to track down at Queen Consolidated after Dante’s visit). “But things went silent after Atlantis was revealed?”

“That’s right, hoss, and I don’t like it,” Rene said. “Them being quiet like this means they must be planning something big.”

“Normally, I’d agree with you, but I received a visit at Queen Consolidated today from Dante, a leading member of the Ninth Circle,” Oliver said, and while Ted and Rene tensed at the words, Emiko faltered in her stance as though she was about to faint. Laurel, who was standing nearby in her exercise clothes, went over and touched her arm, speaking in whispers Oliver couldn’t hear. Whatever was said, it helped Emiko relax.

“According to Dante, after the revelation of Atlantis and the King of Atlantis being a member of the Justice League, the Ninth Circle believes the contract with the Council of Time Masters is no longer a viable objective for their organization,” Oliver said. “They are leaving Starling City and apparently plan to slink back into the shadows and adapt to the changing world order. Emiko, Dante assured me that you and Kazumi can return home and the Ninth Circle would not be seeking retribution for the same reasons. They don’t want to test me.”

He chuckled at that, and Emiko smiled in relief, even while Ted and Rene looked confused, as did Roy, Thea, and even Laurel and Henry. Oliver realized he and Emiko had never told any of them where Emiko got her training. Well, that wasn’t his secret to tell. If Emiko decided it was something that she wanted to share, Oliver would be there to support her, the way he wished Diggle and Felicity had supported him and the List when the recruits were tearing him apart for being a ‘serial killer’ when the actual serial killer, Prometheus, was taunting them with his knowledge of the List.

“Now,” Oliver said, bringing everyone’s attention back to him, “this means that the Ninth Circle is no longer a threat. If any of you three,” he nodded at Emiko, Ted, and Rene, “no longer wish to take part in this team, all you have to do is say so. I will ask you keep the equipment Q-Core developed for you, if only to have something to remember all of this by, assuming you aren’t going to be going out on your own, either.”

“I signed up to defend the people of the Glades from the Ninth Circle,” Ted Grant said. “I’ve done that. And you can keep the suit. I won’t be needing it.” Oliver acknowledged this with a nod, and Ted looked at Emiko and Rene. “What about the two of you?”

“I’m having a hard time balancing my work at Queen Consolidated with this,” Emiko admitted. “I’m sorry, Oliver, but I can’t keep doing this.”

“It’s alright, Emiko, I understand,” Oliver said, before turning to face Rene. “What about you?”

“You still planning on keeping the city safe and need someone to do that when you’re off on Justice League business?” Rene asked. Oliver nodded. “Then I’m still gonna be here. I got people to protect, lives to save, and I can do that a lot easier if I have the authority that comes with being a part of your team.”

“Well, I’m glad to have you here, Rene, for as long as you want to be,” Oliver said. “Ted, Emiko, thank you for putting in the effort and helping protect the city the past two weeks. If you ever do wish to come back, you have places on the team waiting for you.” They nodded, but both moved to the elevator, and Oliver watched them go with a sad smile on his face. At least this time, both his sister and Ted Grant had made it through switching sides and returning to vigilantism, respectively, alive. Laurel had never said anything in the future, in part because they had been barely speaking due to his disapproving of her becoming Black Canary and then her finding out the truth about Thea, Malcolm, and Sara, but he knew that she blamed herself for what happened to Ted when he had faced Daniel Brickwell in the future. The fact she blamed herself for Joanna’s death in this timeline was proof enough of that.

As the elevator door closed behind Emiko and Ted, Oliver turned to face the rest of his team. “Alright, things have been _insane_ the past couple of weeks, and I for one am eager to get back to business as usual. Roy, Thea, sparring. Henry, get me a Lister to go after. Laurel, you and I will spar while Henry does that. Rene, you can either practice your shooting or go on patrol, whichever you prefer.” The shooting range had been modified to allow Rene to practice his gunplay and Oliver suspected his somewhat sloppy aim had improved now that he was practicing it.

“I think I’ll go on a patrol, hoss,” Rene said. “Been practicing my shooting already today.”

“Sounds good,” Oliver said. “Laurel, just let me get into my exercise clothes, and then we’ll get to it.” Laurel nodded, and Oliver quickly changed into his exercise clothes before joining her. “So, you were at Queen Consolidated today and didn’t stop by,” Oliver said. “Should I be concerned?”

“Just figured you were busy with _paperwork_ ,” Laurel said dryly. “God knows I had to slog my way through all of the reports at C.N.R.I., and in the end, mine is a small law firm while you run on a multi-billion dollar company. I figured you have more paperwork than I do every day of the week.” Oliver chuckled in response as he blocked a right hook and delivered a jab forward, which Laurel sideswiped with her forearm. “Besides, I was mainly there to check on my suit.” Laurel had gone in for her suit fitting before the trip to Amnesty Bay, and Oliver had to admit he was surprised that it hadn’t been sent with his new one when they were waiting for the President’s answer to Arthur’s request.

“How is it coming?” Oliver asked.

“They say it should be done in the next couple of days,” Laurel replied. “There was a, shall we say, special component to the suit that was giving them a headache in how to implement it. They asked me if I really wanted it, since without it the suit could have been done weeks ago, but it’s something I really want for personal reasons. And no, I’m not telling you what that is,” she added teasingly when he opened his mouth to ask just that. “I want it to be a surprise. But I know you’re gonna love it.”

“I trust you,” Oliver said, delivering a quick tap to her left shoulder. She rallied and delivered three quick jabs, the last of which was a feint which allowed her to return the tap to his right shoulder. Oliver grinned. Laurel wasn’t built like Sara; she couldn’t deliver the same kind of solid, powerful blows that her well-built sister could. Laurel was more of a wiry-muscled woman, and so she used that to her advantage, depending on quick, hard strikes and her ability to dodge away from danger like a bird evading a predator to fight. The name Black Canary had never suited her more, in his mind. **_*1*_**

Rene headed out on patrol as Laurel and Oliver, and Roy and Thea, continued their sparring sessions while Henry worked on finding someone to get Oliver back into the game now that the insanity of Amnesty Bay, Atlantis, and Washington D.C. was over. Finally, Henry spoke up. “All right, boss, got one for you.” Oliver and Laurel stopped sparring and while Laurel took a moment to get a drink of water from her nearby water bottle, Oliver went over to the computers. “Professor Marcus Angel. He’s an administrator at Glades Memorial Hospital. Dug into him since he’s living a little higher than most administrators can. Thought he might be receiving kickbacks from the doctors or something. But what he does…”

“What is it, Henry?” Oliver asked as Roy and Thea paused in their sparring and Laurel came to stand beside Oliver.

“He has men surgically altered to give them hideous faces, then extorts them to commit crimes for him in exchange for being returned to normal,” Henry said disgusted. **_*2*_**

“I see,” Oliver said softly while Laurel had a disgusted expression on her face. “Well, Professor Angel sounds like he needs to be taught a lesson. Find out who does the plastic surgery. I suspect whoever that is gets a cut of the take in return for doing what they do.”

“On it, boss,” Henry said as Oliver went to suit up and Laurel moved to keep an eye on Roy and Thea’s sparring.

**_*DC*_ **

After Amnesty Bay, it seemed that people were absolutely terrified of Green Arrow and Black Canary, even when the latter wasn’t present. Professor Angel blubbered and promised to make a full confession if he was allowed to live, and Green Arrow had told him to go to Detective Lucas Hilton of the S.C.P.D. to do so. Then Green Arrow went on a patrol, but it seemed like street crime had gone down considerably, and he suspected it was for the same reasons as Professor Angel’s blubbering: Black Canary and her sonic scream. He knew it wouldn’t last, that eventually people would realize that Black Canary was practicing and no longer killed or ripped people apart as she had done with the initial Cry, and then they would get brave again and start coming out. But for now, they were fucking terrified of being caught by his girlfriend. It brought an amused grin to Green Arrow’s face because Laurel was one of the gentlest people he knew. _Well, maybe not to criminals,_ he amended, thinking of the fates of The Huntsman and how she had wished death on Anatoli for what she believed happened to Sara.

When he returned to the Quiver, Oliver was still slightly amused at everything. “Well, I think we’re going to have a lot more time for sparring,” he told Laurel, whose eyebrows popped up questioningly. “Professor Angel was very quick to capitulate and there’s very little street crime right now. I have a funny feeling the criminal element is terrified of a certain lawyer-turned-hero.” Laurel flushed, looking guilty, though her lips were twitching, like she wanted to smile. Oliver knew why.

Even though she had saved his life, before that day in Amnesty Bay, Dinah Laurel Lance had never killed anything in her life, and then she had killed dozens of living beings, savage as they were, ripped them apart with her voice. Now, people were terrified of her, of what she could do, and Oliver knew that was wearing on his girlfriend. He had held her in his arms more than once when she awakened with a scream, but this time the nightmares weren’t about the Huntsman, a faceless Darhk, or Felicity using her own car as an instrument of death. Instead, they were about what she had done, about doing the same thing to a living, breathing person who wasn’t bent on wanton destruction the way that the Trench had been.

She had focused on training her voice all the way through their trip to Atlantis and D.C., learning to control the pitch and frequency of her scream. She thought she had a firm grounding now of the basic pitches (high, medium, low), and was beginning to incorporate that into their sparring, but she still worried about what she could do if she unleashed a full pitched scream at a human being. And that, Oliver reflected, was what made her Laurel, what made her a hero. She hadn’t let the power go to her head. Instead, she worried that she would let it go to her head, not recognizing that by virtue of the fact she was worried about such things, she was unlikely to ever go down that path.

Knowing he needed to distract her before she went down the rabbit hole of fearing herself again, Oliver said, “Let me get changed. Then we can work more on incorporating your Cry into our sparring.” He went up to her, putting a hand on her arm and squeezing it comfortingly. “I love you, and I trust you,” he said quietly, kissing her on the cheek. “I know you won’t hurt me.”

“Thank you, Ollie,” Laurel whispered. Oliver smiled and headed off to change. Laurel returned to supervising Roy and Thea for the time being, a small, sad smile on her face. She knew what Ollie was up to. He was trying to make sure that she knew she wasn’t a monster for what she had done. He had told her about what he had done in Russia, to Kovar’s man. Laurel had been shocked, but it had put what she had done in perspective, which was probably what Oliver was going for. She had told him he needed to let go of his guilt, though. For him that had been almost a decade ago, and it had been during one of the darkest periods of his life. She had pointed out if she couldn’t hold the deaths of those Trenchers against herself since it had happened in a moment of extreme rage and despair, than he couldn’t hold what he had done to Kovar’s man against himself, either.

It was something they would both have to work on.

**_*DC*_ **

**The Temporal Zone**

Barry Allen was hunched over the ‘cannon’ that he had wielded as Chronos, studying it intently. As Chronos, he had been forcibly educated in the workings of the cannon, which targeted the vibrational frequency of the cells in the human body to ‘vaporize’ the target. Barry was currently working on a way of reprogramming the cannon so that the laser _disrupted_ the body, like a stun blast. It would allow him to go in the field with the rest of the team and be of some use. After everything he had done as Chronos, he _needed_ to do more than he had before becoming Chronos. He _needed_ to be able to help _save_ lives in order to balance out all of the lives that he had taken while in the employ of the Council of Time Masters.

A plate with lasagna, mixed vegetables, and a dinner roll was set on the table beside him, startling him. He turned to face Sara Lance, who was looking at him with a sad smile. “Still working on making this a ‘disruptor’ instead of a vaporizer?” she asked rhetorically, but Barry nodded anyways. “Well, if you’re gonna solve it, you need to eat, give your brain energy to burn. You missed lunch again.”

“Sorry, Sara, I just get so caught up with…” he gestured to the cannon, “that I lose track of time. Thanks for bringing me a plate.”

“No problem,” Sara chirped with a grin before pulling up a chair.

Barry stared at her for a moment. “You’re going to sit here and watch me eat, aren’t you?” he asked resignedly.

“You already proved you’ll forget if I don’t,” Sara said dryly, reminding Barry of the first time she had brought him dinner after he had missed it. She had left him to his own devices, and he had worked through the night, his dinner left untouched until she brought him breakfast the next morning. Ever since, Sara had taken it upon herself to make sure he ate and that he got to bed in his and Nate’s room, making Nate swear to let her know if Barry snuck out at night to work on the cannon. “Come on, eat up. What do you want to hear about today?” Every day, she asked him what part of her time with the League of Assassins (both times) he wanted to hear about to ensure he continued to understand that she, at least, knew what he felt like. In turn, he would sometimes talk about what he had done as Chronos.

Barry worried his lower lip. “I’ve been doing some reading on the League of Assassins,” he said slowly. “About their nature, their power structure. How-How did you end up Ra’s’ Horseman?”

“By killing the former Horseman when he tried to force himself on me,” Sara said, her blue eyes a little haunted, and Barry instantly regretted asking her this. “Usually, that would’ve meant death for me, but Ra’s was… _intrigued_ by the fact that I could take on his best warrior and win. Talent like mine wasn’t to be wasted, he said, and so he made me his Horseman, and that gave me immunity from the way women are typically treated. But…” she hesitated. “But that day with the Horseman wasn’t the first time I faced that. I was in a bad place when I got to the League in that time, Barry. I was in a time where someone like me, a bisexual, was likely to get tied between two trucks and pulled apart in the more rural areas of the country. I made my way to Nanda Parbat because it was familiar. And… the other times, I was outnumbered. The Horseman before me thought I was suitably broken and that he could ride me like a donkey. I proved to him he couldn’t and won my immunity from being raped ever again.”

“Sara, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean-” Barry began, horrified that his question had brought up such horrible memories.

“It’s alright,” Sara said quietly. “I only accepted it because I was holding out hope that the team would find me, somehow, and I knew I had to stay alive for that to happen. Without the protection of an al Ghul, I was free game, and I knew that. When the Horseman came at me, I just- I wanted it to end, Barry. I was done. But then Ra’s made me Horseman, and it meant I was free, in a way. Becoming Ra’s’ Horseman was never something that interested me during my first time, and this second time I figured it was out of my reach.” Sara sighed. “At least now I know why Ra’s never saw me as being a member of the League, why he said that stuff about my compassionate heart wanting to show mercy. He knew what I would become, and he only trained me to keep the timeline intact, keep the universe in balance.” **_*3*_**

Barry watched her, this strong woman who had kept coming back when he, as Chronos, threatened her with all manner of death and kept trying to reach him. He remembered, vaguely, her telling Chronos about being in the League without the protection of an al Ghul, but he hadn’t known what that really meant. Now, though… He stood, went to where Sara was sitting, and hugged her. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. Sara’s arms came up around him and he held her as she started to cry, dealing with the emotions of her second experience in the League for the first time. Tears leaked out of Barry’s own eyes as he admitted to himself that he had been mentally violated by the Council and that the deaths he felt guilty for were on them. “We’re birds of a feather, I guess,” he whispered to Sara as they held onto each other.

**_*DC*_ **

**Metropolis, February 2013**

Clark Kent smiled at Lois when she poked her head into Kara’s room in their apartment, which until Kara’s arrival had been their guest room for the rare occasions that Mrs. Kent or, even more rarely, Lucy Lane were in Metropolis and needed a place to stay. Kara was curled up beside Clark, her arms wrapped around his waist and her head resting in his lap. “She just fell asleep,” Clark said quietly to Lois. “I’m gonna wait a few minutes before I try to move.” Ever since they had come back from their two-week trip, Kara had been glued to Clark’s side; she and Mrs. Kent had seen the report on Amnesty Bay _after the fact_ , and both had seen him fighting the Trench on the beach of Amnesty Bay. Even though both knew he was invulnerable, there was something about seeing someone you loved fighting sea monsters that awoke primal feelings in people, and it was no different for Kryptonians.

“Luckily, Perry actually understands the need for you to be there for family,” Lois said, sitting on the edge of the bed and resting a hand on Kara’s leg under the covers. The girl shifted in her sleep but didn’t wake. “You’re going to need to make a decision, though, about what you want to do. If you need to be home for Kara, you won’t be able to be an investigative reporter, anymore. You’ll need to do something like Cat does.” Lois had a disgruntled expression on her face as she mentioned Cat Grant, who was fuming that she had had exclusive access to ‘the Battle Couple of Amnesty Bay’ for two weeks and never asked What Cat’s gossipy mind deemed the important questions, like if they would be moving in together now or if they were going to be tying the knot before the year was out.

“I know,” Clark said quietly, resting a hand on Kara’s head gently. “I’ve been thinking of nothing but that, Lois. I love being a reporter, but… maybe it’s time for Clark Kent to take a backseat. The world is going to need Superman more than ever with the Fort Rozz escapees on the loose and things changing so rapidly. I’ve been thinking I might write a blog, talking about life in Metropolis for the average citizen. With my name, the blog could see enough traction to earn a decent income as long as I kept things going. It would also allow me to air my personal views on things more than I can as a reporter.”

“You sure? You know how some of our co-workers feel about bloggers,” Lois said.

“I’m sure,” Clark confirmed. “I need to be here for Kara, especially once she starts school next week. She’ll be dealing with all new situations and I know I needed Mom and Dad there for me when I was dealing with it on top of having powers that made everything seem so much more intense.”

“You’re a good man, Clark,” Lois said with a smile. “I’ll be in bed once you’re done here. Will you be going out?”

“I figure I’ll give the city a flyover, just to be on the safe side and remind people that Superman is still here,” Clark said. “But petty crime has gone down in Metropolis since we came back. I think seeing the Justice League fight the Trench has made criminals very wary, and probably not just in Metropolis. I imagine Oliver is very bored right now considering Starling City’s criminals are probably scared witless of both him and Laurel.”

“Yes, they probably are,” Lois agreed. “Especially Laurel.” Clark smiled; Lois had written quite the article about the debut of the Black Canary, complete with an interview with Laurel about whether she felt she was always moving towards this or it was just a result of how her life had turned out. This was, of course, after Susan Williams had had an interview with Laurel that was broadcast to the entire country, but it still had plenty of things Susan Williams hadn’t thought to ask and that Laurel had answered honestly. The admission that she honestly believed her life was always going to take her towards becoming Black Canary because of the frustrations she felt when the law failed had been a telling admission, and one Clark worried would see the young attorney’s career come to an end. But Laurel Lance was honest to a fault, and that was something he admired about her.

Eventually, Clark pulled away from Kara, making sure she was comfortable in her bed, and went to go on a quick flyover of Metropolis.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* This was something that was briefly discussed once in the Lauriver Discord. Katie Cassidy isn’t built like Caity Lotz and isn’t really suited to doing the same kind of fighting tactics. It was suggested in the forum that it would’ve been more interesting to see Laurel (either version) be far more acrobatic and essentially use speed and dodging to best her opponents. Even now, with how muscled KC is, she’s still far slenderer than CL. Oh, and IMO, she looks fantastic, but that’s just me.
> 
> *2* Marcus Angel is based on Professor Angel, a minor GA villain whose crimes are those described in the story.
> 
> *3* I really hated writing Sara telling Barry what happened to her. But in the League that I’ve crafted in this story, based on their patriarchal attitude in canon, there was really no way to avoid it, especially in the mid-1900s, and any advantage Sara might’ve had against multiple attackers was negated by them having the same training and all being men. Which is why Sara killed her predecessor, hoping to end it all. Again, I *fucking* hate that I put Sara in that situation. This is a case of ‘author didn’t think things through’ since I established Talia knew Sara when she was a girl even in this new timeline and for Sara to be a part of the League as I’ve portrayed them in this series… Yeah. Sometimes, I don’t think things through. So, yeah, gonna take some care on that front from now on.


	33. Tempest's Last Gasp

Oliver Queen really wanted a sneak peek at what Applied Sciences had come up with for Laurel Lance’s Black Canary suit, but he knew better than to do so. Laurel wanted him to see it for the first time when she wore it for the first time, and so he refused to go down to Applied Sciences and sneak a peek. Instead, he continued to slog his way through the backlog of paperwork and mutter nasty comments about bureaucrats inventing paperwork as a form of insidious torture. As he did so, he thought over the past day. Emiko had taken yesterday off in order to get some much-needed rest so that she could be one hundred percent and had reported in this morning sounding very cheerful. Her mother was in the process of coming out of witness protection and Oliver planned to be there when she returned home to help her with her things and assure her that everything was safe.

As much as he knew that Dante and the Ninth Circle were _probably_ behind the company that his children had fought against in the future, he did believe Dante when he said the Ninth Circle was essentially slinking back into the shadows to adapt to the changing world order. They wouldn’t be seeing the Ninth Circle again until they had adapted to the potential problems that they could face with Atlantis now being an ever-present threat to their way of life. But Oliver had no illusions that his and Emiko’s problems with the Ninth Circle were over; Beatrice was, as he recalled, a spiteful woman who had seized power from Emiko as soon as she sensed weakness and killed Emiko, letting her die in the destruction of Palmer Technologies’ Star City headquarters. While the Ninth Circle was done with them for now, they had marked themselves as enemies to the Circle and that meant they would need to be ever-watchful in the years to come for plots that even _seemed_ like they were the Ninth Circle. **_*1*_**

Oliver’s cell phone rang and he welcomed the break. Picking it up, he saw it was Henry calling. He answered, putting the phone to his ear as he said, “Henry, what can I do for you?”

“Actually, boss, it’s what I can do for _you_ ,” Henry said, sounding very pleased and more than a little smug. “I was digging through some of he old stuff that you had asked me to deal with that fell by the wayside once you became a public hero and were focusing me on finding people to make up he Justice League. I do got some other ideas for that, by the way, and I’ll run them by you when you got the time, but first… boss, I found out two guys you asked me to look into are the same damn person.”

“Which two?” Oliver asked.

“Thomas Wilkins, the third guy that Pollard was connected to, is also known as Thaddeus Cable,” Henry said, his voice excited.

“The last member of Tempest,” Oliver murmured to himself. “ _Finally_. Dig up everything you can on Wilkins’ home, place of business, all of it, Henry. Tonight, Tempest takes its final breath.”

“Can’t wait for it, boss,” Henry said before hanging up. Oliver leaned back in his chair for a moment, amazement flooding through him. This was going to be big. The last member of Malcolm’s cabal would finally face justice. Oliver knew one thing for certain: he wanted Laurel there with him; he would call down to Applied Sciences first and ask how long before her suit was done, but Laurel deserved to be there. She had suffered at the hands of Tempest, it’s leader, and the corruption that they had sown and deserved to be there when the final member was taken down.

Oliver picked up his office phone and dialed the extension for Applied Sciences. “Applied Sciences,” Dr. Brigg’s voice answered; Oliver could hear Curtis and Cisco bickering back and forth in the background and rolled his eyes.

“Dr. Briggs, it’s Oliver,” he said. “I was hoping to get an update on Laurel’s suit. There’s something happening tonight that I’d like her to be there for, and I was hoping it would be ready.”

“It _is_ ready,” Dr. Briggs said. “I was just about to call Miss Lance myself and inform her so that she could come pick it up, perhaps during her lunch hour.”

“I can make that call,” Oliver said. “I need to tell her about what’s happening, anyways. Thank you for telling me, Dr. Briggs.”

“Of course, Mr. Queen,” Dr. Briggs replied, before his voice raised. “Mr. Ramon, Dr. Holt, that is _not_ a toy to bang on the counter!” Dr. Briggs hung up and Oliver shook his head, very happy that he wasn’t directly responsible for corralling a couple of geniuses and shuddered imagining how much more Q-Core would grow once they had the facilities for more staff and what that would mean for Dr. Briggs. Yes, he was very happy corralling geniuses was not in his job description.

Oliver picked up his cell phone, selected Laurel’s contact icon, and hit the green dial icon before holding his phone up to his ear. There were a couple of rings before Laurel answered. “Hey, Ollie,” she said warmly as she picked up. “Still swamped with paperwork?”

“Always,” Oliver said dryly, earning a laugh from his girlfriend since she could no doubt imagine his disgruntled expression. “Remind me not to go away for two weeks ever again. Or, if I do, to delegate my duties as C.E.O. to someone I trust.”

“It’s a deal,” Laurel laughed, and Oliver was happy to hear her laugh. She was bouncing back from the ugly confrontation with her father, it seemed, and he hoped that that meant she would be up for going on a mission tonight. “But you didn’t call just to complain about your hand cramping because of paperwork, right? What’s up, Ollie?”

“Two things,” Oliver said. “First, your suit’s finished, so you can come pick it up from Applied Sciences whenever you have a moment.”

“That’s great!” Laurel said, excited. “Oh, I can’t wait to see it and see what you think when I put it on. You’re gonna love it, Ollie, I promise you.”

“I’m sure I will, simply because you’re wearing it,” he returned.

“Sappy, Ollie, really sappy,” Laurel said with a laugh. “What’s the second reason?”

“I’m glad your suit’s ready, because Black Canary and Green Arrow have a mission tonight and I definitely want you there,” Oliver said, smile fading slightly. “Henry just tracked down the last member of Tempest.”

“Really?” Laurel gasped. “Oh, Oliver, that’s wonderful! We can finally put everything that bastard Merlyn put us through behind us! How did Henry find him?”

“He’s been hiding under our noses the entire time,” Oliver said. “Remember Thomas Wilkins, from my mother’s dinner party? The one with the joke about Democrats? Same damn guy.”

“Oh, really?” Laurel asked, her tone hardening. “Well, I hope he’s had it fun living it up under an assumed identity. He’s not getting away from us, is he, Ollie?”

“Definitely not,” Oliver said. “I’m swamped with paperwork so I don’t have time to see you when you come by. I’ll see you tonight at the Quiver?”

“I’ll be there,” Laurel promised. “Thank you for wanting me to be there, Ollie. I-I _need_ to be there, to see it end.”

“I know,” Oliver said. “I love you, Laurel.”

“I love you, too, Ollie,” Laurel responded warmly. “I’ll see you tonight.” She hung up. Oliver set his phone down, picked up his pen, and sighed as he returned to the bane of his existence, paperwork. At least he didn’t have to deal with paperwork for the Justice League as of yet. But if Amnesty Bay was any indication, he was sure at least some of the funding that would be directed to the Justice League would be directed to setting things right in cities and communities where the Justice League fought their battles. It wouldn’t be right to leave it to the cities in question to find the funding to repair their streets and such after a pitched battle between potentially equally super-powered forces. Oliver was not looking forward to when that time came.

**_*DC*_ **

**Gotham City, October 14, 2066**

The Legends were pensive as the _Waverider_ dropped out of the Temporal Zone and cloaked, heading for the rooftop of Wayne Enterprises to land. They had just learned a valuable lesson about their objectives during the last mission, which had been to a beer hall where Adolf Hitler had given a rousing speech that had seen a boost in his popularity. They had been forced to save the life of the man who would go on to cause a war that would see _millions_ die, all to save the world from an even greater tyrant. “I feel dirty, saving that bastard,” Dick Grayson finally said, rubbing his hands together like he was trying to wash off the grime.

“Yeah, it wasn’t a great feeling,” Sara said, rubbing her arms as a way of comforting himself. “Every instinct in my _body_ was saying that here was a man who deserved to die for everything he had ever done, even though he hadn’t done it. If Barry hadn’t decked him, I would have, and I don’t think I could’ve stopped hitting him until he was dead.”

“You’ve come a long way, Sara, you would’ve stopped,” Barry said, putting a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. “Besides, I get to tell people that I knocked out Adolf Hitler. How cool is that?”

“Yes, why _did_ you knock him out, Mr. Allen?” Rip asked.

“He was _Hitler_ ,” Barry said, as if that explained everything, and Rip supposed it did.

“Well, I’m afraid that we’ll all have to shelve our moral compasses for this one even more than we did the last one,” Rip said uncomfortably. “I do not make the rules of who we must save, I promise you, and I truly wish we did not have to save this man. His crimes are known even in my time as being among the most heinous in the world. His crimes saw the laws that protected the likes of The Joker finally rescinded so that the criminally insane were finally prosecuted in full for their crimes. It was because of his crimes that Vandal Savage ended up locked in an A.R.G.U.S. super-max prison for his endless list of atrocities down through the ages. Without this man succeeding in his destiny… Savage walks free and continues his reign of terror down through the centuries.”

“ _Fuck,_ ” Sara said emphatically. “What scumbag are we saving today, then?”

“Gideon?” Rip asked as the Legends gathered around the central computer.

“ _Hello, Legends,_ ” Gideon greeted as she always did. “ _We are in Gotham City on the night of October 14, 2066. Tonight is a critical juncture for the Gotham serial killer known as Cortex, real name Kyle Crichton. He is a brilliant sociopath who has been killing for over two years now, despite the best efforts of Gotham’s new Batman, Terry McGinnis, to bring him down. He started killing when he was only seventeen years old, culminating in him murdering his own girlfriend and her aunt, a detective in the Major Case Unit of the Gotham City Police Department. Ironically, he started killing in order to save his girlfriend from her best friend’s machinations to sell her to human traffickers when she turned eighteen, but found that he enjoyed the killing and when his girlfriend couldn’t accept what he had become…_ ”

“He killed her,” Sara said disgustedly.

“Yes, and he has been killing ever since,” Rip said grimly. “His kills are theatrical, and he leaves his victims posed like some kind of street art. Gideon, why is tonight a critical juncture?”

“ _Tonight is the night that Mr. Crichton kills Elise Sattler, a medical student who is also the favored daughter of a U.S. Senator attending Gotham University,_ ” Gideon replied. “ _Her death inspires her father to push for the criminal reforms that will repeal the laws that protect men like Mr. Crichton from prosecution to the fullest extent of the law._ ”

“So, instead of saving this woman’s life, we have to let her _die_?” Sara asked. “I-I don’t know if I can do this, Rip. Not-not after everything I’ve seen and done.”

“I am not going to force you to come with me, Sara,” Rip said kindly, “but I should remind you why Mr. Queen suggested you and Mr. Allen for this mission. He felt you needed to learn what it truly means to keep the timeline intact. Unfortunately, this is part of the job, allowing evil men to do evil things because it serves the greater good in the end. Without the likes of Hitler, the reforms that came after would never have happened. It’s a cold calculation that those of us who seek to keep the timeline intact must make. I am sorry that this is something any of you must go through.”

“What did you mean Oliver Queen suggested them for this mission?” Dick asked curiously.

“That is between Mr. Queen, Barry, and Sara, along with myself,” Rip said. “But they have more than earned their place on this team, so far as I am concerned.”

“Yeah, just was curious,” Dick said with a shrug. “I mean, did Queen suggest anyone else?”

“Carter and Kendra,” Rip said. “Mr. Queen… has access to certain information that made him uniquely qualified to suggest team members. That is all I shall say on the matter. Come, we haven’t much time. According to our information, Mr. Crichton is killed while studying with his target, as is his target.”

“So, either way, she’s going to die,” Sara said resignedly.

“Time fights back, Sara,” Rip said. “We could save her life tonight, delay her eventual death at the hands of Mr. Crichton, but it would come. Under the current laws of Gotham, Mr. Crichton would be sentenced to Arkham Asylum and be out within the year because he’s smart enough to know how to fool even the best minds at Arkham. Once that was done, he would seek out the one that got away and begin his ruthless sadism all over again. Unfortunately, we must allow Elise Sattler to die so that the future can live.”

“I just want to go on the record as saying that I hate this,” Sara said. “I’ll keep the bastard from dying. But don’t ask me to wait around and watch him take his victim, Rip. I can’t do it.”

“I understand, Sara,” Rip said. “Everyone get ready. I’ll plot a course to Gotham University’s library.” Headed back to the control console and began piloting the _Waverider_ further into Gotham while the field team members went to get ready, each of them haunted by the fact that they would have to allow an innocent college girl to die. Sara and Barry were now beginning to understand more easily why Oliver had sent them on this mission. Time travel was not some fun thing that could be done to fix things that they thought were wrong. They had to take into account every possible change, including the fact that time fights back, into their actions. If they didn’t, they could create horrible futures like their alternate selves had done with Flashpoint and the Ra’siver timeline, as Barry called it.

Sara looked at her white uniform laid out on her bed, thinking about what it was meant to signify, a hero fighting in the light of day without a mask, the complete opposite of the assassin striking from the shadows and fading away that she had become. How was she supposed to reconcile the woman she was becoming with _letting a woman die?_

Barry buckled his chestplate into place and picked up his helmet, staring at it. As Chronos, he had killed hundreds of people. He had been using the name in the field to redeem it. But now he would have to let someone die, because the timeline demanded it. He _hated_ time travel and would never use it irresponsibly, because he didn’t want to be responsible for a new timeline where potentially worse things happened.

Three hours later, the Legends were returning to the _Waverider_ , their expressions haunted as they filed into the ship. The last they had seen of Kyle Crichton and Elise Sattler, the former had been offering the latter a ride back to her dorm. They had stopped the assassination attempt by another temporal assassin, The Jaded One according to Rip, who Barry had stunned before the assassin could ever get to the library. Then the Legends had made sure there were no other temporal assassins by taking up positions in the library, looking like students. Barry and Sara had been teamed together, and both had felt their heart rip in two when they saw Elise Sattler walk out of the library with Kyle Crichton. Neither would be asking Gideon what Elise Sattler’s manner of death was. They couldn’t stomach knowing they were sending her to her death, much less finding out the details.

“Stay with me tonight,” Sara said quietly to Barry. “I-I don’t want to be alone.”

“Okay,” Barry said. “I don’t feel too good about being alone, either.” He sighed. “If Oliver sending us on this trip was to make us hate and fear time travel… I think he succeeded.”

“He did,” Sara mumbled, pulling Barry into a hug as they entered her and Dick’s room. Dick, noticing Barry sitting on Sara’s bunk, guessed the two wanted some privacy.

“I’ll borrow your bunk for the night, yeah?” he directed at Barry, who nodded slightly, focusing on comforting Sara, who had tears streaming down her cheeks as she imagined the young woman from the library tied down and being tortured or maimed by the charming psychopath that had been killing people in Gotham for two years now. How long had his reign of terror lasted before Terry McGinnis had stopped him? Sara wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answers to that question. **_*2*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Thea Queen was smirking at her brother, as was Roy Harper. Both of them had noticed the way he kept his eyes on Laurel as she headed for the facilities with the case that she had retrieved from Applied Sciences during her lunch break at C.N.R.I. Laurel had said something to Thea about her suit probably driving her brother out of his mind and she couldn’t wait to see what it was.

Finally, Laurel exited the facilities in her new suit, the jacket Sara had given her tucked under one arm. Oliver’s jaw hung open. What Laurel was dressed in could almost be described as a catsuit, tight-fitting black leather that accentuated her curves in ways that Oliver had never imagined possible and on the outer thighs, the leather had been replaced by fishnets, which only made the sex appeal of Laurel’s new suit all the more so for Oliver, who had once told her what the sight of her in fishnets did to him before going to that fateful dinner party. Laurel let him soak in the sight for a moment before shrugging on Sara’s jacket, completing the ensemble, and tilted her head, her honey-blonde hair standing out in sharp contrast to the black leather of her suit. Her curious green eyes met Oliver’s. “So,” she asked, lips curling into a teasing grin, “what do you think, Ollie?” **_*3*_**

“Guh,” Oliver said eloquently. Thea cackled with laughter and Roy hid a grin at his mentor’s lack of words at the sight of his girlfriend in such a revealing outfit. Oliver shook himself, shot Thea a look, and then went right up to Laurel, cupping her chin with his hand. “Dinah Laurel Lance, you _know_ what the sight of you in fishnets does to me. I am going to have a _very_ hard time keeping my eyes off you in the field.”

“Somehow, I think you’ll manage,” Laurel said lightly. “So, good surprise?”

“ _Very_ good surprise,” Oliver said, pulling his girlfriend close to him and giving her a quick, searing kiss. “But I thought you _hated_ fishnets?”

“Ollie, you have to remember that I made a choice to live a little after the thing with Hunt and Gitter,” Laurel said. “Dyeing my hair back to it’s natural color was just the beginning. I knew when I decided to become a vigilante that I wanted to be… different. I saw Sara’s suit and I thought I could pull off something similar. I’m not ashamed to be a beautiful woman anymore, Ollie. I’m not going to hide who I am because it might diminish who I am in other people’s eyes. I know who I am, what I can do, and that I can be both sexy and a kick-ass woman while I’m at it.”

“Well, I will support you one hundred percent, and not just because you look so very sexy in that suit,” Oliver said. “I want you to be the best version of yourself you can possibly be, and if that means I get to see my girlfriend in fishnets out in the field, who am I to complain?”

“ _Whipped,_ ” Thea coughed, and Roy snickered appreciatively. The Princess had timing, he would say that much.

“You just wait, Thea,” Oliver said with a calm smile in his sister’s direction. “One day, you’re gonna find the person that completes you like I have with Laurel.” He purposely avoided looking at Roy. If that was going to happen, it would have to happen on its own. He maintained the calm smile when he saw Thea glance at first Roy, then him with a suspicious look on her face. Oliver turned to Laurel. “Are you ready to show Starling City the Black Canary?”

“More than ready,” Laurel said with a grin.

**_*DC*_ **

Thomas Wilkins, formerly Thaddeus Cable, smiled as he entered his penthouse apartment, his wife Gabrielle on his arm. Five years ago, he had been a gangster who had managed to control a solid bloc of Starling City and amass quite the fortune, enough to start over with a new name, a new history. He had found himself going to Malcolm Merlyn, of all people, for help, since his contacts said Merlyn and his crew had a tendency to protect men like him so long as they delivered on helping the S.C.P.D. maintain their edge against crime, among other things. But when Thomas had sat down with Merlyn, the man had revealed that Tempest were now moving on to a more permanent solution. Merlyn praised Thomas for wishing to leave criminality behind and offered to help him do so, in exchange for one thing: he would cede control of his territories and all his operations to Merlyn and join his cabal, which Thomas was willing to do.

Thomas had moved away from Starling City for a while, gotten his new identity from one of Merlyn’s world-wide contacts, and even met his wife. But then Merlyn had called him back to Starling City, saying there were problems and he needed Thomas’ expertise, even saying he would help Thomas and his new wife ingratiate themselves in the public eye by getting them into _the_ high society parties, like the dinner party where Thomas had joked about Green Arrow doing the job of the Democrats. Knowing the man himself had been in the room and not taken that lightly had made Thomas worry he would be visited by Starling City’s guardian archer, even more so after Queen was exposed, and Merlyn had warned him that Queen was targeting the members of Tempest. But it appeared his identity had held up under scrutiny, and so Thomas had relaxed. Now, as he and his wife got ready to retire after a night at the opera, he was feeling quite exuberant.

That moment lasted right up until the wine glass he was pouring wine into was shattered in his grip by a sonic scream that lifted him off his feet and threw him against the wall, the wine bottle shattering. He looked up in fear as the Green Arrow and Black Canary moved out of the shadows, Green Arrow nocking an arrow and pointing it at him. “Thomas Wilkins,” Green Arrow began.

“You have failed this city,” Black Canary finished, twirling her bo staff. If he weren’t so terrified, Thomas might’ve made a comment about her revealing outfit. But right now, making a comment about another woman’s body was the furthest thing from his mind.

“I-I don’t know w-what-” he stuttered.

“Thomas, what’s going on?” Gabrielle called before entering the room. She gasped in shock. “Thomas!” she cried at seeing him on the floor, then her eyes widened as she registered who their visitors were. “W-What do you want?” she asked tentatively.

“It’s time for your _husband_ to pay for his crimes against the people of Starling City, both those that he committed as Thaddeus Cable, a two-bit thug lord, and as Thomas Wilkins, the last surviving member of Tempest,” Green Arrow said, firing the arrow he had nocked. It wrapped Thomas up like a Christmas present and then he and Black Canary hauled Thomas to his feet. “We’ve got a van waiting for us, Cable,” Green Arrow said. “You’ll be joining the rest of your friends in Slabside before the night is out. Oh, and don’t try to deny it. We already connected your two identities and have all the proof needed. The reign of Tempest is _finally_ over.” Green Arrow and Black Canary led Thomas from his apartment and down to a black van that pulled up. The two heroes hustled their captive into the van, which pulled away and arrived at the 16th Precinct twenty minutes later.

“Come on, time to face the music,” Black Canary said, opening the van’s side door. She jumped out of the van and stood ready ad Green Arrow pushed Thomas out of the van before following him. The two heroes guided Thomas up the steps, ignoring the startled looks from officers who recognized Black Canary and did a double-take as they saw her vigilante gear. The two led their prisoner to the squad room, where it looked like Lieutenant Pike and Detective Hilton were about to head out. “Lieutenant, Detective, a little present for you,” Black Canary said dryly, her and Green Arrow throwing Thomas into a seat.

“What is this man supposed to have done?” Pike asked professionally.

Green Arrow held up a flash drive. “This drive contains all the evidence needed to prove that this man, Thomas Wilkins, is also Thaddeus Cable, the last surviving member of Tempest,” Green Arrow informed Pike, who’s eyes widened. “I don’t think I have to tell you what needs to be done here.”

“No, you don’t,” Pike said, shrugging out of his outer coat as Hilton did the same. “Hilton, process this man personally. I want everything above board so his fancy lawyer, which he can probably afford from the looks of him, can’t get the arrest thrown out on a technicality.” Hilton nodded and, using the trick Oliver had shown the S.C.P.D. during the crime wave following Merlyn’s death to dispel the bindings from his bola arrows, freed Thomas of the bindings. He guided him over to booking to begin the process.

“Goodnight, Lieutenant,” Black Canary said neutrally and then turned and left the squad room, Green Arrow following. Pike watched them go, then shook his head. It was a good thing Quentin was already in rehab, because his mind would have exploded at the sight of his daughter in her new uniform. **_*4*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* I wanted to clarify for those questioning that yes, the Ninth Circle is still a threat, but they won’t be showing back up anytime soon.
> 
> *2* Aside from the humor at the beginning regarding Barry knocking out Hitler, this particular segment was a pretty grim one to write that made me feel very dirty, just like the Legends. I wanted to explore a morally ambiguous case where the Legends had to save someone who was a monster, and since I haven’t brushed up on me WW2 history in a while, I could only reference Hitler. Which meant I needed something else. Kyle Crichton/Cortex is based on a character I created for a screenplay I wrote back in, oh, 2010 or thereabouts. Maybe even earlier.
> 
> *3* For those wondering what Laurel’s suit looks like, look up the alternate suit for Miranda Lawson on Mass Effect 2 (the black one), erase the identifying symbols, add fishnets on the thighs, and you’ve pretty much got Laurel’s suit along with Sara’s jacket to complete the ensemble. I hope everyone liked it.
> 
> *4* And so, the final hanging thread from Tempest has been tied up. The entire cabal will be behind bars soon enough.


	34. The Trial of the Huntsman, Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: These next two chapters explore the trial of Hadrian Wolcott, the Huntsman, and contain some truly disturbing content, as any trial of a psychopath of this caliber would.

Dinah Laurel Lance’s hands trembled slightly as she buttoned up her dark blue blouse before tucking it into her black slacks. She pulled on the suit jacket that went with it, and took a look at herself in the mirror. A pale woman with honey-blonde hair in a black pantsuit and dark blue blouse stared back, a frown marring her brow. She didn’t know if she could do this. She had known it was coming, prepped her testimony with the District Attorney, even planned what she would wear so she wouldn’t give that bastard the sight of her legs, which had grown more muscular in the months since their encounter, to fantasize about after he was sent away to prison.

But now it was the morning of the trial of Hadrian Wolcott, the Huntsman, the man who had been planning to essentially turn her into a Sunday roast on the orders of Malcolm Merlyn. She shuddered as she remembered the tearing, sucking sound as he bit off a chunk of her flesh and the horrifying sounds of him chewing and swallowing that piece of her. Her expression hardened as she remembered the fear that she had felt… and the rage at being seen as helpless. “I can do this,” she said firmly.

“Yes, you can, pretty bird,” Oliver Queen said, coming up behind her, finishing tying his tie and then circling his arms around her torso, pulling her close and putting his chin on her shoulder. “You can do this. You already beat the hell out of Wolcott. All you gotta do is get up on that stand, tell the jury exactly what happened. The evidence will speak for itself. There is no way that bastard is getting off, and if he somehow manages it, I’ve got an arrow with his name on it prepped and ready. He is _never_ going to touch you again.”

“I know, Ollie,” Laurel said, clutching his arm to her and leaning back against him. “I just… I wish Sara was here. I know I have you, and I love that you’re going to be there for me every step of the way. But I _really_ wish I could have at least one member of my family with me to get through this. Mom and I are done, Dad’s in rehab, and Sara’s traveling through time. It’s hard sometimes, Ollie, really hard, knowing these are the lives that we’ve chosen. I’m beginning to understand why you hate it sometimes.”

“I’m sorry you can’t have any of your family with you,” Oliver said, tightening his grip on his girlfriend comfortingly and kissing her on the cheek. “But I’m here. You’re not alone, Laurel. You’re not alone.” This time, he cupped her chin from behind hand turned her head so that their lips met as he kissed her. “Now, time for breakfast. I know you might feel like you can’t eat anything, but that’s precisely when you should. Blueberry pancakes?”

“Sounds perfect, Ollie,” Laurel said with a smile. “I _love_ your pancakes.” **_*1*_**

**_*DC*_ **

The black Bentley pulled up in front of the courthouse and Oliver Queen stepped out, ignoring the flashing lights of the cameras as he turned and helped Laurel out of the car, shutting the door behind them. The two of them pushed through the crowd of shouting reporters, both issuing a statement of, “No comment,” to each and every question. The two entered the courthouse to find the federal prosecutor, David McKnight, waiting for them. “Mr. Queen, Miss Lance,” he greeted each of them before focusing on Laurel. “Because you are our sole survivor, you’ll be the opening witness. I need you to come with me. Once you’ve testified, you’ll be free to join Mr. Queen in the benches behind the prosecutor’s table.”

“I’ll be right there,” Oliver told Laurel, kissing her softly. “You’ll do great. You beat the hell out of Wolcott physically. Now you can do your specialty and eviscerate him with your tongue.” Laurel smiled at Oliver’s confidence in her and gave him another kiss before nodding to McKnight, who led her away. Oliver made his way to the courtroom where the trial was to be held and found it packed, aside from the front bench behind the prosecution’s table. He took his seat there, waiting for the trial to begin. And if Wolcott made any move towards Laurel when she walked passed him to join Oliver and she froze, Oliver would be there to break his jaw. If the bailiff who was eyeing him suspiciously didn’t stop him, that is. Oliver smiled pleasantly at the bailiff and waved at him. The man’s eyes narrowed. Typical bailiff, no sense of humor.

Soon enough, Wolcott was led out of a side door and met with his lawyer, George Wolfman, who in another lifetime had been killed by Cyrus Vanch last week. Wolfman, to his credit, looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here, which was probably because Wolfman knew a bad deal when he saw one. He knew there was no way to get his client off with the overwhelming evidence and, based on the rumors Oliver had heard, had tried repeatedly to get Wolcott to take a deal, which the man had refused. A pair of U.S. Marshals took up positions behind Wolcott. Good, at least they weren’t taking chances with the bastard. As for Wolcott not taking a deal, Oliver could think of only one reason: he wanted to see Laurel again, wanted to try to intimidate her while she was on the stand. Oliver’s hands tightened into fists at the thought before he closed his eyes, taking a deep, calming breath.

Oliver remained in this pose until the bailiff called for them to rise as the federal judge, Elizabeth Donnelly, entered. Oliver had heard of Judge Donnelly. She was fair and wouldn’t let Wolfman get away with some of the tricks he pulled in the local courts. Not that Oliver expected Wolfman to try it. He had a feeling the man would try the bare minimum in this particular case and not pull some of his usual tricks. Once they were seated, the trial began with opening statements.

“Hadrian Wolcott,” McKnight began as he walked in front of the jury, “is a monster. He has single-handedly killed dozens of women, and those are just the cases we know about. He plies his horrifying methods as an assassination method for women who give those who can afford his price trouble. He has killed at least ten women in Starling City alone, and tried for an eleventh. You will hear the overwhelming evidence and witness testimony that will prove to you that Hadrian Wolcott is an irredeemable monster who should be incarcerated for the rest of his days, if not put on Death Row.” McKnight took his seat.

George Wolfman stood. “Hadrian Wolcott is not a monster. He is an English national who has been harassed and framed for crimes he did not commit by the over-zealous agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who were eager to put a feather in their cap by capturing a notorious serial killer. At the end of this trial, you will deliver a verdict of not guilty, because that is what Hadrian Wolcott is. Not guilty.”

Wolfman took his seat, his expression telling Oliver that the man knew his opening statement had been weak and full of lies, because he had to know about all of the evidence the F.B.I. had uncovered in raiding Wolcott’s properties. Oliver knew because Henry kept an eye on the investigation for him and the prosecution had to share such information with the defense to allow them to _build_ a defense. Though what defense Wolcott would have against his human skin suit, the multiple identification cards found in the ‘processing facility’, and the D.N.A. of at least ten women found on the tools at the same facility, Oliver didn’t know. He fully expected Wolfman to put in only a token effort. Wolcott wasn’t getting out of this and everyone in the courtroom knew it.

McKnight stood again. “Your Honor, at this time, the prosecution calls Dinah Laurel Lance to the stand,” he said. One of the bailiffs went to fetch Laurel, and she was guided in and put on the witness stand. Once she had sworn in, McKnight focused his attention on Laurel. “Miss Lance, in your own words, please tell us what happened the night of November 28th, 2012.”

“I’m the head of a small law firm that provides legal aid to the less fortunate in the Glades district of Starling City,” Laurel began, “and I frequently work late, sometimes missing dinner. November 28th was one such night. I didn’t finish working until about nine p.m. I gathered my things and left my office to find the main room of C.N.R.I. dark. The lights had been on when my friend Joanna left earlier, and while I did consider the possibility that she had turned them off and I hadn’t noticed, the fact was that at that time I had been abducted three times within a two-month period.

“I said that if someone was there, that I was going to get out of there. I heard someone chuckle and I armed myself with my pepper spray. I said I was leaving, and that if something happened to me, whoever it was would get an arrow in them because of who my boyfriend is. A modulated voice said my boyfriend was why I was being attacked. The voice came from my left and I turned to face whoever it was, but the attacker disarmed me. I tried to hit him with my purse and he grabbed that and flung it away. We circled one another, fighting, and he taunted me with details of Felicity Smoak’s death. I clarified that he was The Huntsman, the serial killer who had claimed responsibility for her death. He admitted to being such. He kept calling me little bird, saying it was because of how I fought and that there was nothing like ‘a properly-seasoned bird’.

“I told him he wasn’t going to eat me and then punched him with my left hand. He bit into the side of it and tore a chunk off before kicking me down to the ground while was I was paralyzed by the pain. I heard him chew and swallow that piece of me. Then he spoke again, and I remember what he said to this day. ‘Just as I suspected. You are delicious, little bird. I am going to enjoy carving you up.’ Something inside of me just snapped and I attacked him, throwing every bit of training I had received from Ted Grant and my boyfriend, Oliver Queen, into driving him back. I finally knocked him down and started kicking him until he was unconscious, screaming that I wasn’t his plaything. I called my father, who rounded up the F.B.I., and then I tied the Huntsman up. My sister arrived just as he was waking up and kicked him a whole bunch, too. Then the F.B.I. arrived.”

“Thank you, Miss Lance,” McKnight said. “I’m sure that was quite difficult for you. Now, this is a very important question: you say that his voice was modulated. Did you ever hear his real voice or see his face?”

“Yes,” Laurel replied. “I saw his face when the F.B.I. hauled him to his feet. Agent Alex Danvers pulled off his mask and I saw his face. He’s sitting right there.” She pointed at Wolcott, who had been staring at her intently the entire time.

“Let the record show that the witness has identified the defendant, Hadrian Wolcott, as her attacker,” McKnight said.

“So noted,” Judge Donnelly said.

“I would like to now submit into evidence exhibits A and B, photographs taken at the scene of Miss Lance’s torn left hand and of the defendant with bloody, jagged teeth,” McKnight said, picking up a manila folder and putting the two photos on a board nearby for the jury to see. “Miss Lance, can you hold up your hand and show us the scarring there from the injuries you sustained from the defendant’s teeth?” Laurel nodded and raised her hand, stretching it out and angling it so that the jury could make out the pink scar, the puckered flesh where a chunk was missing. More than a few women on the jury looked decidedly ill, as did a number of the men. “Thank you, Miss Lance.” McKnight turned to the judge. “No further questions for this witness, Your Honor.” He returned to his seat.

Wolfman was conferring with Wolcott and, after what seemed to be a heated conversation, stood up. “Miss Lance, you have been through a truly harrowing experience, and I sympathize with the horror that reliving it through testimony must bring. I have only a couple of clarifying questions. First, you said your attacker used a voice modulator. So you never heard my client’s voice taunting you?”

“No, I didn’t,” Laurel replied. Being a lawyer herself, she knew anything further would be stricken from the record if she tried to use a ‘but’ comment.

“Thank you,” Wolfman said. “Second question: was your attacker in your sight at all times? Or was there a time where he was out of sight prior to his mask being removed?”

“I went into my office with my family and two F.B.I. agents,” Laurel said. “We were in there for about five minutes taking my testimony.”

“Five minutes,” Wolfman repeated. “Thank you, Miss Lance. No further questions.” Wolfman turned and returned to the defendant’s table.

“Miss Lance, you may now join the audience,” Judge Donnelly said. Laurel nodded and stepped out of the witness box, passing between the prosecution and the defense to step behind. Oliver stood and gave her a hug, a moment immortalized with the flash of a camera, and hen let her precede him back into the pew, putting himself between Laurel and Wolcott’s intent gaze. Oliver leaned forward and whispered something to McKnight.

“Your Honor, it has been brought to my attention that the defendant has been focusing his attention entirely on Miss Lance for the entirety of her testimony and is even now staring at her now that she has taken her seat,” McKnight said. “I believe that this counts as an attempt at witness intimidation and would like the defendant warned against continuing this behavior.”

“Agreed,” Judge Donnelly said. “Mr. Wolfman, control your client and keep his gaze averted from his purported victim. We will not tolerate such blatant attempts at intimidation in my courtroom. If it persists, Mr. Wolcott will be held in a cell for the duration of the trial until his own testimony, if its called for, is needed.”

“Of course, Your Honor,” Wolfman said, then turned and spoke harshly with Wolcott, who turned reluctantly to face the judge.

“Thank you, Ollie,” Laurel whispered to her boyfriend. He merely smiled and squeezed her hand reassuringly.

**_*DC*_ **

Lieutenant Franklin Pike and Detective Lucas Hilton had been watching the Trial of the Huntsman with the rest of the squad room at the 16th Precinct; regardless of what some of them might think of this new era of costumed heroes having equal authority to cops to bring in criminals and have them charged, Laurel Lance was still a girl that many of them had known since she was a teenager, especially Pike and Hilton, and in the absence of her father, they felt duty-bound to support her, even if it was from a distance since they did have their own jobs to do.

“Bastard should get lethal injection,” Hilton finally grunted as Laurel’s testimony finished. He had never heard the whole story about what happened from Quentin; hearing it now, he felt sick that a girl he had known since she was fourteen and her father joined the M.C.U. had gone through something like that. To have a piece of you bitten off and eaten in front of you… he shuddered. With crazies like The Huntsman and Merlyn around, it was understandable why they needed people like Queen. These were criminals whose crimes and proclivities were beyond what your average detective dealt with.

“I’m sure he’ll get it,” Pike said, looking a little pale. He had maintained an air of professionalism with Laurel ever since being the one to arrest her and charge her with aiding and abetting Oliver Queen’s vigilante actions, charges that had been dropped and immunity given from further charges when Queen had made that sacrifice play before escaping. But it was still hard hearing what had happened not long after to the young woman he had known since she was a teenager. “From what I remember, the Feds had built a solid case. Only reason it’s even going to trial was because Wolcott refused to make a deal. Not that they would’ve made one, from the sounds of it. The only one who wanted a deal out of that was his lawyer because he knew they were fucked from every angle.”

“Still, this has got to be giving her some pretty vivid flashbacks,” Hilton said with a sigh. “She could use Quentin or _anyone_ besides just Queen. What do you think that mission is that Queen sent Sara on?”

“I don’t know, and I don’t care,” Pike said. “Whatever it is, it’s probably Justice League business, which means it’s above our paygrade.”

“I still can’t believe we’re saying shit like that now,” Lucas said, shaking his head in disbelief. “It’s no wonder Quentin had a nervous breakdown.” **_*2*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Clark Kent and Lois Lane watched the beginning of the trial from their office at the _Daily Planet_. Perry had refused to let Clark go, and instead made his blog idea into a column for the _Planet_. It allowed Clark to work reduced hours, nine to one, which meant he was there when Kara went to school and there when she got home each day, which is what he really wanted. In a way, Clark was relieved. He hadn’t really wanted to leave the _Planet_ since he had worked himself up the ranks over the years, but he hadn’t thought Perry would think his idea for a column would sell. Apparently, Perry thought it was a wonderful idea. But now, their thoughts were on their friends, and yes, after spending two weeks in constant company of Oliver Queen and Laurel Lance, Lois and Clark counted the two of them among their friends, as they did Hal Jordan and Arthur Curry.

“That is just so _disgusting,_ ” Lois said as the camera zoomed in on the pictures that McKnight had posted of Laurel’s torn hand and the Huntsman’s bloody teeth.

“It really is,” Clark said. “If it weren’t for people like you and Mom, people like the Huntsman would make me question humanity’s capacity for goodness.”

“I don’t blame you,” Lois said, shivering. “I can’t imagine how Laurel is feeling, facing the man who did that to her. She’s going to have that scar forever. Know that a piece of her is gone forever. That’s not going to be something she just gets over.”

“Probably not,” Clark agreed. “At least she has Oliver. And her work as Black Canary. I’m sure that balances the scales a bit in her mind.”

“I suppose so,” Lois said with a nod. “She seemed excited in our interview to do more as Black Canary.”

“Well, whatever happens, she’s getting to put this all behind her once the trial is over,” Clark said.

**_*DC*_ **

**_The Temporal Zone_ **

Sara Lance sat in the library of the _Waverider_ with Barry Allen at her side, watching the trial of the Huntsman. There was a lull in activity from the Council of Time Masters at the moment, but they had to stay ready in case the Council made its move. But Rip had told her about the Huntsman’s trial, and she had been able to ‘tune in’ to watch it and be there for her sister, even if Laurel didn’t know she was supporting her. Hearing Laurel talk about her confrontation with the Huntsman in detail like that pissed Sara off all over again, and when she heard that the bastard had been staring her sister down the entire time, she muttered violently, “I should have kicked him to death.”

“Excuse me?” Barry asked.

“When we had him down, I should’ve just kicked him to death instead of letting the F.B.I take him,” Sara said. “I could’ve gone underground with Ollie until he was cleared. I know he would’ve made sure I got free and clear for that, too. I should’ve just killed this bastard that night.”

“Hey, there’s no way he’s getting off, even his lawyer knows it,” Barry said.

“Still doesn’t mean I like the fact he’s probably been eyeing my sister like a piece of meat at the butcher’s shop,” Sara said. “I know you’re trying to be comforting, Barry, but this guy, what he was going to _do_ to my sister… it’s not something I can just be fine with the police handling. A part of me really wishes I had just ended it there and then.”

“I understand,” Barry said. “When I was younger, a part of me was a lot more vengeful about Thawne killing my mother. I wanted to find him, beat the crap out of him for destroying my life, but eventually I realized that wouldn’t help my father. Which is why I started studying chemistry and physics, so that I could become a C.S.I. and help find the bastard who was really responsible. Of course, Oliver got to him first,” Barry added dryly, and Sara grinned. “Anyways, what I’m trying to say is that it might’ve made you feel good in the moment, but I promise you, watching him get his just rewards through the courts is gonna be just as, if not more, satisfying.”

“We’ll see,” Sara said, turning back to the screen. “Still should’ve kicked him to death, saved the taxpayers some money.” Barry sighed. Sara tended to get laser-focused on things at times. Apparently, the idea she should have killed The Huntsman the night of his capture was one of them. Well, if there was one thing to say about the Legends team, it was that they were all works in progress.

**_*DC*_ **

**Starling City, February 20 th, 2013 _*3*_**

Emiko Queen was only half-paying attention to her paperwork, most of her attention being drawn to what some were calling the trial of the decade, which was only such because all the members of Tempest, including the recently apprehended Thaddeus Cable, had confessed to their crimes rather than put themselves at risk for potential assassination attempts for their role in criminalizing the Glades. They were all now incarcerated in Slabside Penitentiary.

Emiko watched Laurel manage to get through her testimony perfectly poised and marveled at the degree of self-control that must’ve taken, to not break down in front of anyone when describing what the Huntsman had done to her when the same man was only feet away from her. They had talked a bit during their brief training sessions before Emiko had been able to leave the team, and she hadn’t spoken much to Laurel since her mother had come back to Starling. At all, actually; Emiko’s focus had been on making up for lost time with Kazumi, who she had missed quite a lot.

Laurel was a brave woman, to face her attacker like that. Emiko had feared, and continued to fear, the day when she came face-to-face with either Dante or Beatrice again. She worried she would freeze at a critical moment, because she knew that neither of them would hesitate to deliver the killing blow.

**_*DC*_ **

Noah Kuttler watched the trial of the man who had murdered his little girl, his little Felicity, with intense interest. He was surprised to hear Oliver Queen’s girlfriend even make mention of his daughter. He had been certain that everyone connected to Queen had completely forgotten that his daughter existed. Well, _he_ hadn’t, nor had he forgotten that his daughter had been working directly for Oliver Queen on some top secret assignment when she had been murdered for digging into things. Queen had put his little girl in danger, and it had cost Felicity her life.

His daughter had had the spark in her, the spark of genius that could’ve changed the world, and Noah had hoped to reach out to her and help fan that spark into a flame. But then he heard the horrible news: his daughter had been killed by a serial killer, a notorious one called The Huntsman. The only bit of her that had been found was her head, which had been sent to Queen Consolidated with an apple in its mouth as some sick calling card. Then he had learned about what she had been doing that had gotten her killed by hacking into the F.B.I.’s files.

And so, now, Noah was biding his time. He had deduced every weakness of the man he held responsible for his little girl’s death: Oliver Queen. Initially, Noah had been planning to kill his little girlfriend by hacking into her car and driving it into a semi or off a pier or something equally horrifying. But then sanity returned to him, so to speak. He hated Queen for taking away _his_ daughter. He could not correct that by killing someone else’s. The woman developing superpowers merely cemented the idea that she was to be avoided. Besides, the thing Queen loved most of all, perhaps above Laurel Lance or at least right below her, was Starling City, and there were rumblings in certain circles about an alliance to challenge the Emerald Archer and bring his city to it’s knees. Now that? That, Noah could get behind.

A reckoning was coming for Oliver Queen, and Noah planned to be involved in it. **_*4*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* I wanted to show Laurel having a brief moment of vulnerability when faced with the knowledge that she’s about to come face-to-face with the Huntsman for the first time in months. It’s also got to be hard for her since she has no one but Ollie to be there for her in this trying time. The joys of being a hero.
> 
> *2* I would’ve done a scene with Quentin, but he just barely got into rehab and such facilities probably wouldn’t let their patients watch something that will make them relapse, and hearing his daughter elucidate the attack of the Huntsman would certainly do that for Quentin.
> 
> *3* “The Trial of the Huntsman” replaces Episode 15, “The Dodger”, since the Dodger would be staying the hell out of Starling City. “The Dodger” aired on the date in question.
> 
> *4* Just setting the stage for some things later down the road right now, but I wanted to show where Felicity got some of her, shall we say, psychotic tendencies? Because of her parents, Noah is the one more likely to have such tendencies. Donna is… Donna.


	35. The Trial of the Huntsman, Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS A PSYCHOPATH BRAGGING ABOUT HIS ACHIEVEMENTS, AND CONSIDERING THE PROCLIVITIES OF SAID PSYCHOPATH, THAT IS GOING TO BE A STOMACH-CHURNER FOR SURE. SADLY, IT WAS UNAVOIDABLE BECAUSE SERIAL KILLERS ARE SHOWMEN. THEY LOVE THE SPOTLIGHT.

Due to the grisly photos of Laurel’s torn hand and the Huntsman’s bloody ‘fangs’, the Judge called for a recess of two hours. Hadrian Wolcott was led from the courtroom, and Oliver Queen glared directly at the bastard when he dared to look back to continue his attempt to intimidate Laurel. Laurel was gripping Oliver’s right hand tightly, her gaze focused downward until Wolcott was finally through the doors and on his way back to a holding cell. “It’s okay, Laurel,” Oliver said, turning to his girlfriend and pulling his right hand free only to wrap his right arm around her shoulders and pull her close, so that she was leaning into him. “You got through it. That was the hard part. Now we just have to wait for them to nail him with every last witness testimony and every bit of evidence the Feds have ready. Wolfman knows the trial’s already over. Look at him.” He leaned back slightly so Laurel could see George Wolfman, who was indeed looking defeated and ignoring shouted questions from reporters.

“Thanks, Ollie,” Laurel said quietly. “Once I got up there, it was easier. I was in a courtroom, my turf, and I could bury him with an in-depth account of what he did that night. I know he’s not getting off. I just… I worry that he’s going to escape somehow, that he’s bought off his guards or someone else in the courthouse to let him free, and then he’ll just bide his time before coming for me again. I know I beat him, both the night he came for me and today, but I worry he’ll always have some hold over me because-because he got a piece of me that night.”

“No, he doesn’t,” Oliver said, squeezing her comfortingly. “If he did, you would’ve never been able to face him today. You did. Now all we have to do is wait.” And wait they did. The two of them didn’t leave the courtroom, to the disappointment of the press waiting for a soundbyte from either of them, and soon enough the courtroom began filling again, and Wolcott was being led back in, still guarded by marshals. Oliver felt Laurel relax slightly beside him at seeing Wolcott still in custody. The jury returned to their seats, the judge called the session of court to order, and the trial began in earnest.

Alex Danvers was the first witness called after Laurel. Dressed in a smart black pantsuit like Laurel, the red-haired woman took the witness stand and was sworn in. McKnight began, “Agent Danvers, according to the reports you filed, you have been actively chasing the Huntsman since you became a profiler. Is this correct?”

“That’s correct,” Alex replied. “I first came across his M.O. when I was at Quantico and was both horrified and intrigued. I followed the case and, when the opportunity came to be a profiler, I jumped at the chance because I wanted to understand what drove a man like this. I have gone over every case file of every victim that we know about, working to determine what kind of man this killer could be.”

“Could you please share the profile you developed with the court?”

“Of course,” Alex said, before focusing on the jury. “The Huntsman is a high-functioning psychopath. He feels nothing for his victims, for their families. He gets a thrill from what he would call ‘the hunt’, which based on the way all of the victims have vanished, is inserting himself into their social lives so that they are comfortable with him. The attack on Miss Lance was atypical, representing a departure from his standard Modus Operandi, and as a result led to his capture. All of his victims are women who ‘rock the boat’, who ‘push beyond their natural place’. This suggests that the Huntsman was raised in a very traditional household where the patriarchal hierarchy was well-established. He does not see women as people or equals; he sees them as things, as objects, and, as evidenced by his Modus Operandi, he sees them as a food source, the way human beings look at animals that we both raise for slaughter and hunt in the wild.

“But like many serial killers, the Huntsman is also a narcissist. He _wants_ to be known, he wants people to know his name and fear him, which is why he sends the heads of his victims to the police or to the people those who hire him as a hitman want to see his handiwork, such as in the case of Felicity Smoak’s head being sent to Queen Consolidated. He is atypical of most serial killers in that he offers his skills as a hitman, but even then, his criteria is very specific. He never kills a man, and he never kills a woman over 35. This suggests a strong sense of ageism, perhaps even a fear of an older woman from his past who may still hold power over him, even if she is long-dead. The Huntsman is, too put it simply, the near-perfect killing machine as both a serial killer and as a hitman as the only trace of his activities is the heads of his victims that he sends, always with apples lodged in their mouths as a sick joke. It was _purely_ the fact that he was given specific instructions when it comes to Miss Lance that caused him to act out of his comfort zone, leading to his capture.”

“Thank you, Agent Danvers,” McKnight said. “So, to clarify, if the defendant had not followed specific instructions from his client, he might have inserted himself into Miss Lance’s life and successfully gotten away with it?”

“That’s correct,” Alex replied.

“Does the F.B.I. have a suspect for hiring The Huntsman to kill Miss Lance?” McKnight asked.

“In the aftermath of Oliver Queen taking down Malcolm Merlyn, the hostages were each interviewed about their experience,” Alex replied. “Thea Queen confirmed that her biological father claimed responsibility for sending the Huntsman after Miss Lance.”

“Thank you, Agent Danvers,” McKnight said. “Is there anything else you can tell us from the profile?”

“The Huntsman would have to be charming and charismatic in order to seduce every woman he’s murdered into a vulnerable position where he could capture them,” Alex replied.

“Thank you. No more questions,” McKnight said taking his seat.

Wolfman stood. “Agent Danvers, have you had much one-on-one time with my client? Enough time to confirm whether he has the traits you describe?”

“You know I have, Mr. Wolfman, seeing as you insisted on being there for each session that I had with him,” Alex said. “Your client possesses the necessary character traits in spades, and the fact he couldn’t take his eyes off of my legs when I wore a skirt the first day showed he cannot control himself. He _has_ to fantasize about doing what he does to the women he sees. It is an inescapable reality.”

“No more questions,” Wolfman said. **_*1*_**

The next up was Darius Trimble. “Agent Trimble,” McKnight began, “you were the lead agent who, along with Agent Danvers, arrested the defendant. What can you tell us about his demeanor, his manner of dress?”

“His demeanor was that of a hunter, totally fixated upon his prey,” Trimble said, and Laurel shuddered slightly beside Oliver, who pulled her tighter to him and rubbed her shoulder reassuringly with his thumb. “When he was conscious, his eyes did not deviate once from Miss Lance. Even when his mask was pulled from his face and his sharpened teeth photographed as seen on the board,” Trimble nodded to the board where the pictures of Laurel’s torn hand and the Huntsman’s ‘fangs’ were pinned, “he couldn’t stop looking at her, as though he were peeling her clothes off with his eyes, imagining the flesh beneath. As to his manner of dress? We processed the leather suit he was wearing and confirmed that it was made not from cowhide but human skin.”

“Once you had his identity, you searched property records tied to Mr. Wolcott and the vast fortune he controls from inheriting his father’s business empire, correct?” McKnight asked.

“We did,” Trimble said. “We’re still digging through each and every processing facility, to use the proper term, in every major city, all purchased with different shell corporations that eventually trace back to Wolcott Industries’ food processing division.” Trimble grimaced, and he wasn’t the only one.

“What did you find at the Starling City facility?” McKnight asked.

“We discovered a journal with a lock of hair and an ID on ten pages. Other such journals were found in the other cities. The Starling City journal contained the identities of ten victims, in order of their capture and ‘processing’.”

“Please list them off, let the jury get to know these people,” McKnight said, picking up a manila folder and opening it, withdrawing a pile of photographs.

“The first was Margo Harrington. Seventeen years old, an heiress to one of Starling City’s wealthiest families. She was a Straight A student.” Oliver stiffened in shock; that was Thea’s friend who had gone missing all those months ago, the one who had been encouraging her in her substance abuse. McKnight, meanwhile, put a picture of Margo up on the board, below the pictures of Laurel’s hand and the Huntsman’s teeth. “Next was Amanda Cartwright, twenty years old, an art student at Starling City University. Jamie Eisenberg, twenty-four, a waitress at Shapiro’s diner on 22nd and Percy Avenue. Charlotte Grayson, eighteen, studying theatre at Starling City University. Francine Kohler, twenty-three, a beat cop with the Starling City Police Department. Caroline Danvers, twenty-nine, a junior associate at Wetherby & Stone. Daphne Blake, twenty-five, a private investigator who was looking into Charlotte Grayson’s disappearance for the girl’s family. Nadia Grell, twenty, daughter of Judge Joseph Grell of Starling City’s first district court and on track to becoming a lawyer herself. Hannah Willis, twenty-four, an usher at the Wilmington Theatre, due to be married this past January. Finally, there was Laura Anderson, twenty-six, a sales associate at Barrington Jewelers.”

With each name mentioned, a picture was pinned to the board by McKnight so that the jury could see the faces of these people who the Huntsman had stolen the life and promising futures of. There were a couple of brunettes, like Margo, and Daphne Blake had been a redhead, but predominantly, the women in the picture were blondes with a mixture of blue, green, and brown eyes. The jury somehow managed not to look sick, which was a feat as far as Oliver was concerned, because he was sure his stomach was roiling. The Huntsman had killed all of these people _in his city_ , and he hadn’t stopped it. He had tried to look into the Huntsman after Felicity’s death, he told himself, but had believed the man had moved on after having the courier deliver Felicity’s head. If he had thought, for one moment, that the Huntsman was still in Starling City… Oliver felt sick, and Laurel noticed the way his expression wad darkening. She set her scarred hand on his knee and squeezed. He looked at her in confusion. “It’s not your fault,” Laurel told him firmly, if quietly.

McKnight, for his part, looked just as affected as any rational human being would be. “Thank you, Agent Trimble,” he said quietly. “What can you tell us about the facility itself?”

“It was much like a meat processing facility of any kind, modified slightly to accommodate for just _who_ was being slaughtered there,” Trimble said. “It is even entirely possible that the journal we uncovered was not the first of it’s kind, that the Huntsman has been in Starling City before. The facility had received quite the cleaning, leaving very little trace of what had happened there.”

“Thank you, Agent Trimble,” McKnight said. “No more questions.”

“No questions for this witness,” Wolfman said wearily after conferring with Wolcott. Oliver had to admit that while he was fine with that, he was also worried. Wolcott had to be planning something. But what? **_*2*_**

The prosecution’s final witness was Darren Weller, the courier who had delivered Felicity’s head to Queen Consolidated. Once he was sworn in, McKnight started right in. “Were you hired to deliver a package to Queen Consolidated on October 27, 2012?”

“I was and I did,” Weller said with a shrug.

“What was in the package?”

“Someone’s severed head,” Weller said with a shudder.

“Is the person who hired you to deliver that package in this courtroom?” McKnight asked.

“Yeah, he’s right there,” Weller said, then blanched as Wolcott bared his teeth at him in another clear case of witness intimidation, something that was quickly noted by the judge.

“Mr. Wolfman, control your client, or he will be locked away in a cell until this trial is over,” she said firmly.

“Yes, Your Honor,” Wolfman said before turning and speaking fiercely to Wolcott, who seemed irritated at being lectured. The marshals noticeably tensed as Wolcott leaned close to Wolfman.

“Thank you for your testimony, Mr. Weller,” McKnight said.

“Mr. Weller,” Wolfman said, “did my client actually give you the package personally?”

“Yeah, he did,” Weller said.

“Very well. No further questions,” Wolfman said.

“The people rest, Your Honor,” McKnight said as Weller was let out of the courtroom, eager to get away from The Huntsman and his sharpened teeth.

“Court will recess for one hour, after which the defense will begin their case,” Donnelly said, banging the gavel.

**_*DC*_ **

Thea Queen had turned on the television at the flower shop as soon as she reported in for the day with Roy, wanting to be there for Laurel in some way because this had to have been hell. Agent Danvers had been giving her profile on The Huntsman when the television had come on, and Thea had shivered slightly at hearing the way Danvers had described what kind of man became The Huntsman. Roy had eyed her worriedly, but she shook her head, showing she was fine. The shop was empty, which wasn’t surprising; most people were probably home watching the trial of the century. No one was going to be buying flowers today. But they had to keep the shop open, to maintain appearances, and places of business were still open.

When Thea had heard the name of the first victim of The Huntsman, she had frozen, because she had expected it to be Felicity Smoak. She stared at the screen in horror as the prosecutor put up a picture of her best friend, who had been missing for months, and her hands went to her mouth as tears filled her hazel eyes. Roy, startled, moved over and put an arm around Thea’s shoulder in an attempt to comfort her, even if he didn’t know why he was doing it. Thea turned into him, clinging to his shoulders as she cried for her friend, who she had thought skipped town or something like that. But no, her friend had been _murdered_ , murdered by a psychopath who _ate_ the women he killed. Thea shuddered against Roy, who held her tight and murmured, “I’m so sorry, Thea… I’m so sorry…”

**_*DC*_ **

Before Oliver and Laurel knew it, the hour recess was up and it was time for the defense to begin their case, though what kind of defense could be mounted, neither of them had any idea.

George Wolfman stood. “The defense calls Hadrian Wolcott,” he said reluctantly, as though he knew something horrible were coming but he had no way of stopping it, which made Oliver and Laurel both tense up.

Wolcott took the stand, the marshals taking up positions behind him in the witness stand. Wolfman approached. “Mr. Wolcott, you asked me to get you up here because you had a statement to make,” Wolfman finally said quickly, as though ripping the Band-Aid off the wound as quickly as possible. “You’re here. Now’s the time.”

Wolcott smirked, fixing his eyes directly on Laurel, who met his gaze unflinchingly, fire in her green eyes. “My statement is this. What you have heard today, the testimony of Miss Lance, of the F.B.I. agents, of the courier? All of it is true. I am the serial killer known as The Huntsman. The F.B.I. believed until my capture that I had killed perhaps fifty women over the course of my life. They are wrong. I have killed two hundred women over three continents, and over the course of killing those women, I learned one thing: muscular women are delicious, and flabby women are… distasteful. Luckily for me, most of my victims have been the former, with the latter being primarily in the beginning. My favorite cut is the drumstick. So succulent, so tender, and so filling… a meal all on it’s own, especially when covered in a savory barbecue sauce. You can condemn me, can sentence me to lethal injection, but I _will_ escape your pathetic prisons, and when I do, the first to fall under my knife in my renewed campaign of terror will be the delicious Laurel Lance and her equally delicious sister.” **_*3*_**

The courtroom descended into an awful, horror-filled silence. Laurel stared straight ahead, gripping Oliver’s hand and keeping him from reacting since it could get both of them a contempt citation if the judge was feeling ornery after that grandiose display, which was all too likely since she ordered the marshals to escort Wolcott back to his seat and ordered them to, “Keep him quiet for the rest of this trial!”

“Closing statements,” Donnelly said in a clipped tone once Wolcott was back in his seat beside Wolfman, still radiating an air of smugness.

“The prosecution does not feel a closing statement is necessary after the defendant’s… insidious lack of remorse was shown to audiences everywhere,” McKnight said.

“Defense waives it’s right to a closing statement,” Wolfman said, rubbing his temple.

“Then the jury will deliberate,” Donnelly said, “though I suspect it won’t take very long.”

It didn’t. The jury came back with a verdict of guilty on all ten counts of murder in the first degree and guilty on the one count of attempted murder in the first degree within ten minutes. Finally, it was time for sentencing. “This is perhaps the most heinous case that I have ever sat in judgment on, in which the defendant pled not guilty only so that he could make a proud declaration of his crimes in open court, and make threatening overtures to his only living victim at the same time,” Donnelly said. “The pride in which the defendant takes his actions cannot be denied, nor can the cruelty and unrelenting malice with which he conducts himself. Due to the severity of his crimes, his lack of remorse, and all the other factors in this case, I sentence Hadrian Wolcott to death by lethal injection, the sentence to be carried out as soon as is allowed by state law. Until such a time as he is executed, he is to be remanded to Slabside Penitentiary, a maximum-security prison from which there is no escape.” _Not quite,_ Oliver thought grimly and hoped Wolcott never learned about the escape through the morgue.

Wolcott was led away to cheers, and Laurel slumped against Oliver in relief. Oliver held her close, kissing her forehead. “Let’s go home,” he said.

“I am completely onboard with that idea,” Laurel said, “in more ways than one.”

“Oh?” Oliver asked.

“Not here,” Laurel said. “We’ll talk once we’re home.”

“Alright,” Oliver said. “Come on. We have to fight our way through a pack of vultures. They’re going to want a statement from you. Are you ready for that?”

“I am,” Laurel said firmly.

The two made it to the courthouse steps before the press invaded. “Laurel, what are your thoughts on today’s verdict?” asked Susan Williams.

“It’s perfect, in my opinion,” Laurel replied. “Hadrian Wolcott is a monster, and he has been sent to a prison full of them until he’s killed by lethal injection. I am completely satisfied with the judge’s ruling.”

“What will you do if Wolcott escapes, as he claims he will?” asked another reporter.

“ _If_ he were to escape, and that is a _huge_ if, I already beat him once, and that was without any superpowers,” Laurel replied. “I have my training from three different sources, and I have the Canary Cry, and I will be seeking more training as time goes on so that I can be the best fighter and hero that I can be. If Wolcott escapes, he’ll be outclassed and outmatched in every way imaginable before being sent right back to Slabside for his date with death. That’s all, no more questions.” Oliver and Laurel made their way to the waiting Bentley and got in. The Bentley pulled away while inside, Laurel leaned into Oliver’s embrace and let herself cry. It was over; it was finally over.

**_*DC*_ **

**The Temporal Zone**

Sara Lance’s jaw had dropped when the Huntsman had made his big speech, her eyebrows raised when the man inferred that he would escape and that when he did, she and her sister were going to be ‘first on the menu’ as the saying went. “Oh, you come near me, I’ll rip your trachea out,” Sara said, earning a cautious look from Barry Allen, who was slowly getting used to the fact that Sara tended to use death threats as conversation pieces when it came to certain types of people. When the sentencing came through, Sara grinned, thinking it was the best they were going to get outside of dealing with him themselves. Finally, Laurel’s statement afterward had her whooping in glee. “There’s my sister!” she cheered, hugging Barry tightly. “That’s the one I remember! Always confident in herself, always ready to take on the world! Welcome back, girl! Welcome back!”

Barry grinned at the woman’s enthusiasm. Aside from her casual use of death threats as conversation pieces which he was still getting used to, he was finding he quite enjoyed being in Sara’s company, and watching her sister take down one of the most prolific serial killers and hitmen in the world, if the man’s claims to have killed 200 women across three continents could be believed, had been time well-spent together. He turned to say something to Sara and found himself staring into her excited blue eyes. The two of them stared at one another for a moment, and then Barry gathered up his courage and leaned forward, kissing Sara on the cheek (he didn’t have the guts to kiss her on the lips if that wasn’t what she wanted). For a moment, Sara stared at him, hand going to her cheek in surprise. Then she grabbed him by the lapels of his jacket, and laid one right on him, channeling all of her fierce passion into it. Barry returned the kiss with fervor.

Nate Heywood, who had been about to come in and ask if they were finished, turned right back around and decided to tell everyone the library was off-limits for a little bit longer.

**_*DC*_ **

**Starling City, February 20 th, 2013**

Thea Queen and Roy Harper had continued to watch the trial. When the Huntsman had made his declaration of guilt and proudly proclaimed his sick tendencies, Thea had shuddered and leaned into Roy, who was growing increasingly discomforted because he wasn’t as irritated at the princess wanting his comfort as he might’ve been when they first started training together. When the sentencing came down, Thea let out an excited squeal and, to the surprise of both of them, pecked Roy on the lips in her excitement. Then she froze as she realized what she had done. Roy, for his part, was frozen as well, frozen in terror at the idea of Thea’s brother finding out about this little incident.

“Um, I’m gonna just go recheck the stock in the back,” Roy mumbled and shuffled away. Thea, meanwhile, was thinking about the feel of Roy’s lips against hers. There had been _something_ there, even though he hadn’t kissed her back, and she wanted to try again, see if she couldn’t figure out just what that was. She was beginning to think maybe Ollie had a good reason to stick her and Roy together. **_*4*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver and Laurel entered the loft, arms wrapped around one another. “It’s nice to be back somewhere private,” Laurel said with a sigh of relief. “Now, I believe I owe you an explanation. Ollie, I’m not doing too good being down there on my own. I’d like to stay with you while Sara is gone, and then, once she’s back and I can sign the lease over to her, move in with you officially.”

“Really?” Oliver asked, holding Laurel close. “I’m not going to say no, if that’s what you’re worried about. I wanted you to move in after Ankov kidnapped you, you might recall.”

“And back then we were still too new together,” Laurel said. “But now… I want to be with you, Ollie, as much as possible. I don’t do well without people around me anymore. I was frozen in place for five years because I thought my sister and my boyfriend were dead. I was fine with being alone because someone had to take care of Dad. But he’s in rehab now, and Sara’s off flying through time. I-I’m lonely.” It was an admission that had her ducking her head.

“Then you don’t have to be alone,” Oliver said, kissing her softly. “You have a place here anytime you need it. I’ll even clear out some drawers so that you have space for your things. And if the landlord gets iffy, I’ll chat with him. One of the many wonderful things about being a billionaire is I get preferential treatment, and as long as he gets paid for each apartment, he’s not gonna care what the tenants get up, especially when they’re as famous as us.”

“Thank you, Ollie,” Laurel said, wrapping her arms around his torso and pulling herself into his chest. His hand came up to clutch her head to his chest and he rested his chin on top of it. The two simply stood there, basking in each other’s presence as late afternoon turned to evening. Today had been a triumph, in more ways than one, and they had each other. All was well with the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* Writing Alex’s testimony was interesting since the only exposure I have to profilers in fiction is “Criminal Minds” and Dr. Huang on “Law & Order: SVU”, the latter of which has more bearing since the crew from the former don’t really have court scenes while the latter does. It’s been a long time since I watched the seasons with Dr. Huang, but I hope I captured the essence of a profiler testifying in this segment.
> 
> *2* Trimble’s testimony was also interesting to write, for different reasons. Writing out him listing off the ten Starling City victims was grim. A couple of shout-outs were involved in those listings. Charlotte Grayson is the half-sister of Emily Thorne, the protagonist of “Revenge”, and Daphne Blake is of course based on the character from “Scooby Doo”.
> 
> *3* Writing this paragraph, with the Huntsman elucidating his triumphs and his taboo tastes, was probably the creepiest paragraph I have ever written, and that’s including one time I wrote the Huntsman doing his work in an older project. Just imagining someone bragging about these sorts of things in an open courtroom… *shudders*
> 
> *4* Ah, here we go, a couple of reaction sections that lighten the mood, with Barry and Sara, and then Roy and Thea, having a moment.


	36. Ultimatum

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Alright, here we go with a new episode. It takes place over the course of three chapters. Also, I will *probably* be focusing on planning out and writing the next episode of “DC’s Emerald Archer” now that I’ve finished this, so don’t expect Episode 17 for a bit.

A week had passed since the Trial of the Huntsman, and Oliver Queen and Laurel Lance had fallen into a pattern. Get up in the morning, have breakfast with Thea, go to their jobs at C.N.R.I. and Queen Consolidated, have lunch together (usually Oliver showing up at C.N.R.I. because Laurel still tended to work through lunch unless someone brought her something), Laurel continuing to work at C.N.R.I. while Oliver returned to the Quiver and worked on various projects, including one that he was keeping secret from everyone. No one knew what the green mineral was that he was making arrowheads from, and no one wanted to ask because of his grim expression when he was forging these arrows and encasing them in lead. Finally, Green Arrow and Black Canary would go on a patrol of the city. Sometimes they found criminals, but as soon as those criminals saw who was coming at them, they basically surrendered. Laurel was heard to complain that she wasn’t really getting the chance to show the world what she could do outside of ripping things apart with her voice.

February 27th dawned bright and early, a light snowfall coming down from the sky, and the Queens and long-term guest were gathered around the kitchen counter, the women talking idly over their coffee while Oliver made breakfast (German pancakes with extra egg and hashbrowns). Thea was distracted, though, and both Laurel and Oliver had noticed she had been distracted all of this past week. Oliver had purposely decided to listen to music, headphones blasting away, so that Thea would feel comfortable talking to Laurel about whatever was going on. In truth, he could make out whatever was being said, but he would let his little sister have the fiction that he was completely oblivious. “So, do you want to talk about what’s been going through your head?” Laurel asked softly, putting a hand on Thea’s shoulder.

“Huh? What d’you mean?” Thea asked distractedly.

“You’ve been acting funny all week,” Laurel said knowingly. “Is it Roy?”

“Is it that obvious?” Thea asked, flushing.

“Only to someone whose been in the same position, which is why Ollie’s so confused,” Laurel said with a wink. “So, what happened?”

“It was after the verdict was read at the trial,” Thea said. “I was so happy that the man who killed my friend was getting what he deserved that I hugged Roy and then kissed him. We’ve been dancing on eggshells ever since.”

“Believe it or not, I know how you feel,” Laurel said. “The first time I kissed Ollie, it was completely on impulse, one of the only things I had ever done on impulse in my entire life at that point. But everything had been building up and I finally just couldn’t stand not expressing myself anymore. I can’t tell you what to think, Thea. But according to Ollie, the two of you were pretty close in the last timeline. If there’s something there, go for it. You never regret falling in love.”

“Thanks, Laurel,” Thea said quietly, but then Oliver pulled out his earbuds while pulling out the tray of German pancakes. “Food’s done,” he said, turning away to cut the German pancakes into servings and as a result hiding his devilish smirk. “So, you girls have a nice talk?”

“Yes, Ollie, we did, and no, you can’t know what it was about,” Thea said, smirking at her brother. “I think your head would explode if it did.”

“Oh, I dunno, I’ve heard some pretty shocking things, Speedy,” Oliver said. “Besides, do you _really_ think I haven’t seen the way you and Roy have been dancing around each other the past week? I might be a guy, but I’m not blind, Thea. So, who kissed who?”

“Take all the fun out of it,” Thea said sulkily. “I was hoping to torture Roy with the fact that you were oblivious, and we had to be careful.”

“The both of you have some serious issues to work out,” Laurel said with a smirk. “You’re both trolls.”

“We are not,” the Queen siblings chorused.

Laurel just laughed. Being around Ollie and Thea was balm for her soul in the absence of her father and sister.

**_*DC*_ **

Laurel was hard at work at C.N.R.I. by mid-morning, going over the paperwork, when there was a knock on the door. Laurel looked up and saw an officious-looking man standing on the other side of the door. She waved him in, and he entered. “Dinah Laurel Lance?” he asked in confirmation.

“That’s me,” Laurel said.

“My name is Trent Duckworth,” he said. “I’m here on behalf of the state Bar Association.” Instantly, Laurel felt dread creep into her mind, but she told herself that she had known this was coming. “I will get straight to the point, Miss Lance. We have been watching the events in Starling City with an increasing worry. Your open work with a vigilante, and now your becoming a vigilante yourself, flies in the face of everything it means to be an officer of the court.”

“The Justice League and those affiliated with it are offered the same powers as any other officer of the law,” Laurel pointed out.

“A legal fiction, which you are well-aware of,” Duckworth said dismissively. “The truth is that the law as it currently stands does not make a distinction between those who are being called heroes and vigilantism. You are an officer of the court, Miss Lance, who has been taking the law into her own hands. First through a proxy, your boyfriend, and now you are doing so yourself as Black Canary. This cannot stand, as you well know. I am here with an offer, and you are frankly luckily you are even being _given_ an offer. If it were up to me, I would be here informing you that your license to practice law has already been stripped and you’re to vacate the premises since the head of any law firm needs to be a practicing lawyer.”

“What is the offer?” Laurel said.

“You can either be a lawyer, or you can be Black Canary,” Duckworth said. “You cannot be both. We are willing to offer you a week to make your decision. We understand it is something you’ll have to discuss with your boyfriend, as this extends to him, as well. If you decide to stay on as a lawyer and leave Black Canary behind, he cannot serve as your proxy. Just as you will not be allowed to be involved in any cases C.N.R.I. is given should you choose to stay Black Canary and leave your work and admittedly promising law career behind.”

“I’ll have your answer for you by the end of the week, if not sooner,” Laurel promised. Duckworth nodded, turned, and left the office without another word. Laurel leaned back in her chair, staring off into space. So, it had finally happened. The Bar Association was coming down on her for the vigilantism she had taken part in, peripherally and directly, and it was coming down hard. She knew she was lucky that she was getting an offer, much less a week to consider that offer. She had a suspicion that more than a few in the Bar Association would’ve been pushing for the immediate revoking of her law license.

Laurel had to admit, she didn’t know how to feel. She had gone to college and then law school for a total of six years, using her intellect and her ability to memorize everything to graduate faster than most of those who had joined law school with her. She had been twenty-four when she graduated law school, one of the youngest lawyers in her class, and that promise had shone, because she had gotten a very lucrative offer from a San Francisco law firm that she had been considering because she wanted to get away from Starling and the memories of Oliver. But then the argument with her father had happened, and she had decided to get a job at C.N.R.I. and been here ever since. She knew the D.A.’s office would love to poach her from C.N.R.I. given the chance, and that was likely true of every law firm in the city. She had even received offers since returning from the Battle of Amnesty Bay from law firms as far away as Los Angeles and a renewed offer from the same law firm in San Francisco. As Duckworth had said, she had a very promising career as a lawyer if she chose that path, with multiple roads leading to a long and prosperous career as an attorney. But all of those promising roads would disappear if she remained Black Canary. **_*1*_**

On the other hand, she had told Lois Lane herself that she believed her life had always been driving towards Black Canary because of her frustration whenever the law failed to provide justice for the people. She had done more in the past week, bringing criminals in alongside Oliver, then she could in six months at C.N.R.I. under normal circumstances (i.e., circumstances where people weren’t scared witless that she would rip them apart with her voice if they didn’t capitulate). As it stood, Laurel knew that that fear, the fear that had won C.N.R.I. so many cases recently, had probably led to some of the more intelligent and cunning lawyers approaching the Bar Association and showing what she was doing with her newfound status as a member of the Justice League, ignoring the fact that she had been on the other side of the country when those people capitulated to C.N.R.I.’s offered deals. She had the _power_ to help people in a different way now, and she had brought in criminals who the police couldn’t touch or didn’t care to hunt down as Black Canary. Was she really going to give that up, even for her career?

“Laurel?” She looked up to see Adrian Chase standing on the other side. “What was that about? It looked pretty tense in here.”

“That was Trent Duckworth, a representative from the state Bar Association,” Laurel replied. “I’ve been given an ultimatum. I can be a lawyer, or I can be Black Canary. They also said if I stay a lawyer, I can’t ask for Ollie’s help, nor can I give it to C.N.R.I. as Black Canary if I choose that path.”

“You sure it’s the Bar Association that said that?” Adrian asked. “The Justice League is federally-sanctioned to operate as they see fit. You’re authorized to help cops, private investigators, and law firms like C.N.R.I. close their cases. I think you might want to call the Bar Association, find out the specifics from the source. For all you know, the guy they sent has a real dislike of the idea of the Justice League and is using his position to try and force you from doing what you know is right.”

“You’re right,” Laurel said slowly. “I think I _will_ call the Bar Association. Thank you, Adrian.”

“Anytime, Laurel,” Adrian said with a smile, and left the office while Laurel snatched up her office phone, a grim expression on her face.

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver Queen noticed right away that there was something off with his girlfriend when he arrived with Chinese takeout for the two of them (broccoli and beef for her, tiny spicy chicken for him). Her expression was pensive, and she was staring passed him at the office where the lawyers of C.N.R.I. were taking their lunch breaks as well. “Hey,” he said, setting the bag down on her desk. “What’s going on?”

“Huh? Oh, hey, Ollie,” she said warmly, if distractedly. “I just got a nasty surprise visit earlier from a member of the Bar Association. I had to call them to clarify a couple of things.”

“Oh?” Oliver asked. “This about what you told Lois?”

“In part, but it’s everything I’ve been doing since we got back together and you started helping me,” Laurel said. “I knew this was coming, Ollie. I just didn’t expect whoever they sent to try and take advantage and completely destroy any chance C.N.R.I. has at being an effective law firm against the criminal and the corrupt. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised; C.N.R.I. has made a lot of enemies over the years, and me being Black Canary gave them the ammo they wanted to try and destroy it.” She pulled out her broccoli and beef and gave Oliver a smile of thanks. He smiled back. “I called the Bar Association to double-check the perimeters of the offer they’ve extended to me.”

“Which is?” Oliver asked.

“I can either be Black Canary, or I can be a lawyer with a bright future,” Laurel replied. “I can’t be both.” Oliver felt a chill go down his spine despite knowing these were very different circumstances. This was not unlike the choice Laurel had faced in the future when Ruve Darhk had asked her to become her District Attorney, since all city officials at the time had bodyguards and Laurel didn’t have the same skill at slipping away that Oliver did. Laurel had decided to go out ‘one last time’ to help stop Darhk from escaping from prison, and that had been the last night of her life. Oliver forced himself not to think of that night again, focusing on the fact that Laurel was alive and right in front of him. “I’m conflicted, Ollie,” Laurel continued, unaware of her boyfriend’s inner flash of fear on her behalf. “I love being a lawyer. It’s all I wanted since Dad refused to let me be a cop. But now I’m _sort of_ a cop, working with the Justice League and with the team here in Starling. And I do more good right now as Black Canary than I do as Laurel Lance.”

“You’re at a crossroads,” Oliver reflected. “I know how that is. It’s what I was like for a long time, until I finally came to the realization that I told Thea a few months ago: Oliver Queen is Green Arrow, and Green Arrow is Oliver Queen. Right now, you’re still trying to keep your two identities separate despite being a public hero. I think you need to decide whether Laurel Lance is Black Canary, and Black Canary is Laurel Lance, or if Black Canary is just your way of expressing frustration at a system that has failed to get justice for people. I wish I could help you, but you in the last timeline never faced this crisis until the night she died, and even then, she was going to wait until she finished one last mission, which turned out to be her last. This is a decision that you’re going to have to make on your own, Laurel. I can’t help you here.”

“Just you being here and letting me make the decision while supporting me whatever I choose is more than enough help, Ollie,” Laurel said. “I have a week to decide, and they’re giving me that week because, according to the Bar Association member I talked to on the phone, they don’t want to see a promising attorney like me throw her career away out of frustration.”

“Well, if you ever need a sounding board…” Oliver said.

“I know who to turn to,” Laurel said with a smile, and then the two began digging into their meals in earnest, just enjoying each other’s company.

**_*DC*_ **

**The Temporal Zone**

For the past week, Sara Lance and Barry Allen had been dancing on eggshells around one another. Oh, they still talked about things while Barry worked on maintaining his weapons (he had found out how to turn his cannon into a ‘disruptor’ and now maintained it and his armor constantly between missions), and Sara still made sure that Barry ate all three meals a day, but there was a hint of nervousness between them now, stemming from the kiss they had shared after seeing the Huntsman receive his just rewards. But eventually, they could avoid the elephant in the room no longer. “So, that happened,” Barry said as they ate a late lunch in the mess hall of the _Waverider_.

“It did,” Sara agreed. “Why did you kiss me?”

“I…” Barry began, trailing off as he realized he didn’t know why he had kissed her. He became pensive, mulling it over in his mind. “I’ve been thinking about it for a while, I guess,” he finally said. “You’re the only person I really knew on the _Waverider_ and so we got close because of that. And I started to notice things about you, things I haven’t really noticed about anyone because I was hung up on feelings I had for my best friend for so long. You’re a beautiful woman, Sara, and funny, and you have an intelligence that shines when you aren’t pretending to be the dumb blonde. You were there for me when I was trying to fight my way through Chronos, and you were the person who finally pulled me out of the darkness. And that day in the library, the excited look in your eyes made you all the more desirable and I couldn’t help myself.” He met her blue eyes with his own green ones. “Considering what happened after, I’d guess I’m not the only one whose been harboring secret thoughts. You don’t just kiss someone like that out of nowhere, Sara.”

“I suppose I’ve been noticing things about you, as well,” Sara finally said. “You’re intelligent, Barry, and funny, and despite being attracted to me, you haven’t treated me like some sex object, which is how I’ve gotten used to men seeing me as. Ollie, Dick, and now you… all of you have treated me as a person, as someone who’s thoughts and feelings matter and that it's not just my body you’re after. You want to know who I am deep down, and you comforted me when I was dealing with what I had to do to survive in the League for a second time, this time without the protection of an al Ghul.”

“I guess that was part of the reason I never said anything until I acted,” Barry said. “I’m not like Oliver and Dick. I figured you had a type, and it wasn’t me. I didn’t expect you to kiss me back. Honestly, I was half-expecting you to slap me for kissing you like that.”

“Muscles and being able to kick ass might be attractive qualities, especially for someone who’s an assassin, but at the end of the day, physical attraction is not enough,” Sara said. “You need the emotional connection, and you treated me like a human being. You didn’t treat me with fear or anything. You never have, since the day we first met at Queen Consolidated and I said I was basically Laurel’s bodyguard. You’ve been a good friend on this trip, Barry, and in all honesty, I was beginning to feel something for you before, well, before you attacked the _Waverider_ and sent yourself through time so the Time Masters could find you and brainwash you.” Sara shook her head. “Man, we lead complicated lives, don’t we?”

“Yeah, we do,” Barry said. “So, I guess the question is, what now?”

“Now, we try to figure out if we work together,” Sara said after a moment. “But only if we’re both ready. If you’re still hung up on your best friend, this will never work, Barry, and I won’t waste my time.”

“No, we, uh, had a conversation at Christmas,” Barry said, grimacing. “She was trying to convince me to move back to Central City, away from ‘all the craziness’, and one thing led to another and we ended up at each other’s throats. During that, I ended up saying something like, ‘I don’t see how I ever loved you’, and that made things pretty awkward. She definitely doesn’t feel the same way about me, based on the slap she gave me. So, yeah, Iris and I? Not gonna happen in this lifetime.”

“Well, then, we take this one day at a time, and we keep treating each other as equals,” Sara said. “Shouldn’t be too hard. You’re a badass in your own right now. Fett.”

“Really? Fett? That’s the best you can come up with?”

“Only sci-fi bounty hunter that I know,” Sara said with a shrug.

“Okay, first date, I’m introducing you to the wonders of pop culture icons,” Barry said, and Sara grinned. She liked how the words ‘first date’ sounded coming from Barry. **_*2*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver and Laurel were training, as were Thea and Roy. Rene was fine-tuning his shooting at the shooting range, and Henry was back at it digging into rumors that sounded like heroes/vigilantes for Oliver. “So, there’s been something I’ve been meaning to ask,” Oliver said, ducking a punch from Laurel and throwing a right hook, which she blocked with her forearm and then delivered a straight punch to his chest. “I _love_ the sight of you in fishnets, Laurel, but is it really that safe?”

“They’re not regular cloth, Ollie,” Laurel said. “I may want to look sexy, but I’m not an idiot. Regular nylon fabric would tear with the kind of movement we have to get up to out there. No, the fishnets on my suit are made from spider-silk. It can stop a blade or a single bullet. Rapid-fire weapons could _potentially_ punch through, but the types who use rapid-fire weapons are likely to aim center mass, and the liquid armor can take that.” **_*3*_**

“True,” Oliver agreed. “How was the rest of your day at C.N.R.I. after I left?”

“Pretty boring,” Laurel said. “I mostly did paperwork and thought over what the Bar Association told me. I still don’t know what to do, Ollie. Black Canary… I can do so much as Black Canary. But I _love_ being a lawyer. Ever since Dad told me point blank that he wouldn’t let me be a cop, being a lawyer and enforcing the law that way has been everything to me.”

“I wish I could help you,” Oliver said regretfully. “I wish I could find some way for you to be both a lawyer and Black Canary.”

“I know, Ollie, and I love you for it,” Laurel said. “And how about you? How are things at Queen Consolidated?”

“Busy,” Oliver replied. “We had the groundbreaking for the building for the new energy project with Wayne Enterprises this week, and Bruce Wayne had a few words to say. For a playboy billionaire, he was surprisingly supportive of a clean energy project. Then again, he _was_ the one to bring it to us, not Lucius Fox. My guess is he’d like this to be his legacy if he can manage it.”

“Well, a source of clean energy for cities and eventually cars would definitely leave a mark on the world,” Laurel said in agreement. “Speaking of Gotham, any word from Batman on your offer?”

“None,” Oliver replied. “I’m not surprised. I get the feeling that he’s just holding out until the last possible second and then he’s going to say no.” Laurel hummed noncommittally. Before the Huntsman, she had thought Batman was too brutal, but now she realized that when you refuse to take a life, like Batman, you were left with very few options to keep the bad guys down. Laurel knew that when criminals eventually realized she wasn’t going to rip them apart with her voice like she had the Trenchers, they would be coming in droves, and she would need to be ready. She knew that, because she wasn’t willing to take criminals’ lives for what they did, she was going to have to take a similar tactic to dealing with them as Batman had, and so she wasn’t as against him joining the Justice League as she had been when Oliver first broached the idea.

“Boss, got something, _finally,_ ” Henry called from the computer consoles. Oliver and Laurel both headed over since this was Justice League business. “So, I’ve been hearing rumors about this woman in Paris, the one with the golden lasso, and I finally managed to capture a clear image of her.” He brought up the image of the woman. “Local newspapers in Paris are calling her ’Wonder Woman’. But that’s not the interesting part. I ran the image through databases, just to see what I could pull up, and I found _this_.” Henry pulled up a black and white photo alongside the capture of Wonder Woman, and Oliver blinked. It was the same woman, walking down a street in some village somewhere with a group of men in military clothing that was circa World War I. “Whoever this woman is, boss, she’s been around _a long time_.”

“Anything else come up on the database hits?” Oliver asked.

“None,” Henry said. “Whoever she is, she knows how to hide from cameras, or at least throw off facial recognition software. Something as simple as a hairstyle change and glasses can do that, depending on how they change one’s features.”

“Looks like I’m headed to Paris, then,” Oliver said. He turned to Laurel. “Why don’t you come with me?”

“I remember what happened the _last_ time I went on a Justice League recruitment mission with you, Oliver,” Laurel said dryly. “You _said_ it’d be a couple of days in a nice little ocean-side community. It turned into a goddamn battle for our lives followed by a pair of diplomatic trips to D.C. and the eighth wonder of the world.”

“I know,” Oliver said, taking her by the shoulders and kissing her forehead. “But I don’t think we’re going to face anything as extreme in Paris. You can take the time you need to consider what you want to do with the Bar Association’s offer, and we can have an actual romantic getaway. We never did get a Valentine’s Day thanks to that thing with Cable. I’d like to make up for that. It was our first Valentine’s Day together in five years and it got caught up in vigilante business. Let me make it up to you?”

“Fine,” Laurel said after a moment. “But I’m bringing my suit, just in case.”

“As am I,” Oliver said. “Just because I don’t think there will be anything doesn’t mean I’m not going to be prepared.”

“So, you two are going away again?” Thea asked.

“Yep,” Oliver said. “But this time,” he added dryly, looking at Laurel, “no reporters.”

Laurel chuckled ruefully but said, “I promise I won’t tell Susan Williams I’m leaving town with you. I’m guessing we leave first thing in the morning?”

“Yup,” Oliver replied. **_*4*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* To be a lawyer, you have to memorize laws and legal procedures to provide successful arguments in court. That requires a high intellect and the ability to read and retain this information for the entirety of the case you are currently providing legal counsel for. So, whether certain fans like it or not, Laurel Lance is an intelligent woman with an excellent memory.
> 
> *2* I hope Barry and Sara’s talk was done well and I hit all of the right points. Poor Barry and his self-deprecation cycle. Sara’s gonna need to work on building up his confidence.
> 
> *3* I realized I forgot to make mention of the fact the fishnets are made of spider-silk when I introduced the suit, so I thought I’d have Oliver bring it up.
> 
> *4* And, so, Oliver and Laurel are off to one of the most romantic cities in the world to have a romantic getaway and hopefully recruit Wonder Woman for the Justice League.


	37. Daughter of Zeus

Morning dawned in Paris, France, early-morning sunlight drifting in through the curtains of the expensive hotel room that Oliver had booked for the two of them and landing on the entwined figures of the two heroes. Oliver was the first to awaken, and he looked down at where Laurel was curled up against him, her head resting softly on his chest. He ran his fingers through her long honey-blonde hair, and her green eyes opened. She turned her head upward and looked at him. “Good morning,” Oliver said, shifting slightly so he could kiss her forehead.

“Morning, Ollie,” Laurel said sleepily, curling into him further. “Is it bad that I don’t want to get out of bed? I _hate_ jetlag.”

“No, it’s perfectly fine,” Oliver said. “Only reason I’m so good at adjusting is because I’m used to being up at all hours of the day and waking up as soon as possible. You’ll probably get used to it eventually. Once the criminals start realizing you’re not going to hit them like you did the Trenchers with your Cry, they’ll start getting braver and we’ll be out a good part of the night. That’s if you stay Black Canary, that is. I don’t want you to think I’m pushing you into anything. While I love having you out there with me, I know how much being a lawyer means to you and if that’s your decision, I’ll support you, one hundred percent.”

“I know, Ollie, you don’t have to keep telling me that you’ll support me, whatever I decide,” Laurel said, shifting slightly. “Ugh. It’s too early in the morning to think about this,” she complained. “I need my coffee before I think about anything else.”

“Right, room service time,” Oliver said. “Blueberry pancakes?”

“You read my mind,” Laurel said with a sleepy smile. “I’m gonna go shower.” She reluctantly slid out of bed, grabbing her bathrobe and pulling it on over her underclothes. She headed for the en suite bathroom while Oliver snatched up the phone and ordered room service for their breakfast.

Twenty minutes later, the two of them were sitting at the table in their hotel room, eating their meals. “I have to say, they do have a good recipe here, but your blueberry pancakes are better,” Laurel said after swallowing a piece of maple syrup-covered pancake. She scooped up some scrambled eggs and ate them as well.

“Well, you know what they say, food made with love is the best kind,” Oliver said.

“Sap,” Laurel teased.

“Guilty as charged, when it comes to a certain pretty bird I know,” Oliver replied.

Even four months ago, the amount of love shining in his eyes would’ve made Laurel feel spoiled, but now she knew it was just his way of expressing himself. He had thought he had lost her forever in the last timeline and now he had another chance with her, and he wasn’t wasting it. Laurel could understand that and, if she were honest, she was now fine with a little spoiling from her boyfriend. It was just his way, and she loved him for it. She also knew that there was more on their agenda in Paris than just finding Wonder Woman. Oliver wanted them to have a romantic getaway and, Laurel admitted, if they were going to have to attend more galas like the one the President threw to welcome Atlantis back into the world, she was going to need dresses for such occasions and Paris was the best place to get those. Laurel had never really been a girly girl, that had always been Sara’s thing before the _Gambit_ , but she wanted to look desirable for her boyfriend, if nothing else.

“What’s going through your head?” Oliver asked.

“Just thinking about what all we should be doing in Paris,” Laurel said. “Besides why we’re here, I mean. I hate to ask this, but if the president throws any more galas like the last one, I’m gonna need more evening gowns, and Paris _is_ probably the best place to get that sort of thing, so…”

“Of course, I’ll finance a dress-buying expedition,” Oliver said, lips twitching. “I’m not going to miss a chance to spoil my relatively down-to-Earth girlfriend.” Laurel blushed and ducked her head. “I’ll make an appointment with one of the boutiques in the city. But for now, I’m thinking that today we play tourist. We’re not going to get a chance to find Wonder Woman until tonight, anyways.” Laurel nodded in agreement. “So, I’m thinking we see the sights. Eiffel Tower, Versailles, Bridge of Locks, finished off with a romantic dinner along Champs Elysee. I’m not going to waste the opportunity to give you the late Valentine’s Day that you deserve, Dinah Laurel Lance.”

“Okay, _now_ I’m feeling spoiled,” Laurel said.

“Get used to the feeling,” Oliver said, reaching across the table and taking Laurel’s free hand, rubbing his thumb gently along the side of it. “You are the most important person in my life, Laurel, and I’m not going to pretend you’re not. I did that once, and I paid the price for it. I will _never_ let you think that you are anything less than the most important person in my life for as long as we’re both alive.”

“Careful, Ollie, that almost sounded like a proposal,” Laurel teased, blushing again at the thought of Oliver proposing marriage to her. It was her deepest wish, but she knew with their currently-complicated lives it was an impossibility. But still, they _were_ in Paris, and Ollie _was_ so loving and tender with her all of the time, the thought couldn’t help but surface.

“One day, I _am_ going to put a ring on that finger, Laurel Lance,” Oliver said quietly. “I love you more than life itself. Life isn’t worth living if you’re not sharing it with me.”

“Again, getting dangerously close to proposal territory there, Ollie,” Laurel said.

“Alright, I’ll stop,” Oliver said. “So, anything you want to add to our list of tourist attractions?”

“How about the Louvre?” Laurel asked. “I know art isn’t the most _exciting_ thing in the world, but it’s got the same attractions as the other stuff.”

“Sounds good,” Oliver said, then grinned. “Maybe I’ll even see if I can arrange a behind the scenes look for us at stuff that isn’t ready just yet.”

“Ollie…” Laurel sighed in fond exasperation. Oliver gave her an unrepentant look in return. **_*1*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Superman hovered over Metropolis, eyes and ears on the lookout for any disturbances in his city. He had come across a few Fort Rozz escapees in the past couple of days. He had questioned each of them about where the rest were holed up (because they had to be holed up somewhere), but they claimed ignorance. He had sent them back to the Phantom Zone right after. Superman would be the first to admit that he was worried. Neither Astra nor Zod had shown themselves, and Superman had expected them to come after him by now, drunk on the power a yellow sun granted their kind. That they hadn’t, that they seemed to have a supreme degree of control over their urges, meant that they could be planning something, something big, and unfortunately there was nothing Superman could do to stop it. He had no idea what Zod or Astra _sounded_ like, so he couldn’t even focus his hearing and listen for them.

Screams echoed up from the city below, and Superman zeroed in on the location: Suicide Slums. Superman shot down towards the city and found himself faced with a Valeronian wielding some kind of advanced ax. “Stop right there,” Superman said firmly as he floated down to hover a few inches above the street roughly ten feet from the Valeronian. His blue eyes took in the motionless forms of some homeless people with deep gouges in their backs and fronts from where the Valeronian’s ax had done it’s work. Superman didn’t speak any further, instead acting. He shot forward, delivering a straight punch to the Valeronian’s chest and sending him flying back.

“I am Vartox,” the Valeronian said, “and it will be my privilege to kill the scion of the House of El. Once I’ve dealt with you, I will search this city for the daughter of Alura, and take my vengeance.”

“You won’t get near my cousin, Vartox,” Superman said grimly. He fired his heat vision at the ax, having read about weapons such as this in the archives of the Fortress of Solitude. The ax heated up, and within moments exploded, peppering the street, Superman, and Vartox with shattered bits of itself. The bits that hit Superman bounced off harmlessly, the bits that hit the street dug in slightly, and the bits that hit Vartox dug into his flesh, leaving him whimpering on the ground. Superman pulled out the Phantom Zone projector. “Time to go back where you belong,” he said, and fired the projector. Vartox was struck with the beam of energy and sent back into the Phantom Zone. Superman replaced the projector where he kept it and flew back up into the sky, to continue keeping watch over the city he called home.

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver and Laurel had done the tourist thing and were on the last leg of that journey, the Louvre. Oliver had successfully arranged for a sneak peek of ‘coming attractions’, causing Laurel to roll her eyes at her boyfriend’s flamboyant nature. The head of the Louvre had just led them into what he called the restoration room. “Ah, these our art curators,” he said. “Ah, Miss Prince! I didn’t know you were still here.”

“I am, Monsieur,” said a dark-haired woman that both Laurel and Oliver couldn’t help but stare at for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, this woman was probably the most gorgeous woman they had ever met. Even Laurel could acknowledge that the woman was incredibly attractive and privately noted that if Sara were here, her sister would already be hitting on this woman. But more importantly, while she might have her hair up in a sleek ponytail and was wearing glasses, there was no mistaking this woman’s face. This was their quarry; this was Wonder Woman they were staring at. Miss Prince, as the head curator had called her, turned them and smiled indulgently, reaching out her hand. “Diana Prince,” she introduced herself. “Neither of you need bother with introductions. Everyone in the world knows who you are after Amnesty Bay.” Diana looked at Laurel. “I thought it was very brave, what you did.”

“Thank you,” Laurel squeaked, then coughed, and said, “Thank you,” in a much clearer voice. “Sorry, it’s just… I hope this doesn’t come across the wrong way, but you are… you’re so…” Laurel flushed red, unable to say anything else.

“Guh,” was Oliver’s intelligent contribution to the conversation. Diana smiled at them both, her brown eyes glinting mischievously, and Oliver colored at his less-than-impressive showing. But what was he supposed to say? The grainy still that Henry had gotten for them from Paris CCTV did this woman absolutely no justice. He was also trying really hard not to show his attraction to another woman when his girlfriend was standing right there.

“Well, I’d love to stay and chat, but it’s the end of my shift,” Diana said. “I only stayed because I heard we had a couple of famous patrons coming to see our humble corner. Good evening.” She picked up her purse and left the room.

Oliver shook himself and instantly turned to Laurel. “Laurel, I-”

“You don’t have to say anything, Ollie,” Laurel said. “I was in the same situation, and I’m not Sara. Oh, Sara… she would’ve hit on that woman without hesitation.”

“Yes, she would have,” Oliver said with a grin, his color returning to normal.

“You should know you are not alone in your reactions,” the head curator said. “All of us had similar reactions upon meeting Miss Prince. It is amazing that a woman that beautiful can be so genuine and kind. She never reacts poorly to people showing attraction, though she does react poorly to men who treat women poorly. That time Caroline was being harassed… well, let’s just say the man walked away very awkwardly, and only after it took him five minutes to recover from what Miss Prince did to him. She’s very protective of her female co-workers.”

“Well, that’s good, I say,” Oliver said. “Now, what exactly do we have back here?”

“Ah, let me show you…” the curator said, while Oliver made a mental note to call Henry and ask him to look up the address for Diana Prince in Paris. They would go see her after dinner… and hopefully be a little more verbal than they had been this time. **_*2*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Clark Kent woke with a start. Something was wrong. Something had woken him up, something in his apartment. He slipped out from under Lois’ arm and moved first to check on Kara, make sure she was safe. His cousin was sleeping soundly in her bed, and there was no sign anyone had been in there. Clark smiled as he watched his cousin shift in her sleep, muttering in Kryptonese. Something about her mother. Clark closed the door and moved into the apartment proper. It was early morning, and he could make out the figure of a man standing near a display of photographs, picking up one that Clark knew from the positioning was a recent one of he, Kara, and Lois at an all-you-can-eat Chinese place. “It is quite the life you have built for yourself, son of Jor-El,” the man said quietly, his cultured tones soft and somehow menacing as he set the photograph down and turned around to face Clark. “Parents… a mate… your cousin as an adoptive daughter… a hero to the common folk… but your actions are telling. You are no hero. You are a _coward_.”

“General Zod, I presume,” Clark said.

“Indeed,” Zod said, stepping forward into the light and revealing he was dressed in the same black Kryptonian uniform he had worn the day that he had been sent to the Phantom Zone and Fort Rozz. “I will not delay the purpose of this meeting. You are one of the last sons of Krypton. There are too few of our kind left in the galaxy, Kal-El. As such, I am offering you this one chance to stand down, to join your Kryptonian brothers and sisters as we make this world a New Krypton.”

“This world belongs to the humans,” Clark said. “We are _guests_ here. Might makes right was the way Krypton’s military was run, and it was the _wrong_ way, as evidenced by your coup attempt. I will not stand by and watch as you and the others slaughter countless innocents in your bid to conquer Earth. I will stop you, Zod. You have my word on that.”

“No, Kal-El,” Zod said. “You will kneel, along with the rest of this backwater, before Zod. Before this world’s summer, you will kneel and beg forgiveness, and I will not grant it. This was your one chance to live with this little family you have created for yourself. When the time comes, your love will burn, your cousin’s broken body will lie at your feet, and you will _kneel before Zod!_ ”

“Wrong!” Clark snarled, aiming the Phantom Zone projector, which he always kept on him, at Zod and firing. But Zod moved in an instant, evading the beam of energy, and the next moment he was in front of Clark, grabbing him by the throat even as he snatched the projector from his grasp.

Zod smiled as he fingered the projector in his grip. “It would be fitting,” he said, “to send you into the Phantom Zone, to suffer as I have, as countless others have because of your family. But no… this is not yet the time. First, you must lose all that which you hold dear. Your lover… your cousin… your city… Once I have taken all of these things from you, once you _beg_ me for death, I will not grant it. Instead, I will send you into the Phantom Zone, to suffer in your misery for an eternity.” Zod turned and hurled Clark across the room, where he smashed into the wall and left an indentation. A startled yell came from the direction of the bedroom, and when Clark looked up, Zod was gone.

“Clark!” Lois shouted as she entered the room. She knelt beside him even as a bleary-eyed Kara wandered out, looking around confusedly. “Oh, my God, what happened?”

“Zod,” Clark said grimly. “He took the Phantom Zone projector.” Clark stood and took both Lois and Kara in his arms. “What matters right now, though, is we’re safe. All of us. And as far as I’m concerned, we’re gonna stay that way. I can always build another projector.” **_*3*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver and Laurel stood outside the door to the loft that Diana Prince owned in Paris. Oliver glanced at Laurel, then reached forward and knocked on the door. They heard soft footsteps approaching the door, and then it was swinging open, and Diana Prince was on the other side. “Mr. Queen, Miss Lance,” she said. “Do you need something?”

Oliver reached into a coat pocket and withdrew the copy of the photo from World War I that Henry had printed off for them before they left Starling City. He unfolded it, and displayed it for Diana to see. “I think we have some things to talk about,” Oliver said quietly.

Diana stared at the photo with a pensive and somewhat longing expression before she nodded and stepped back, swinging her door open wider. Oliver and Laurel stepped in, and they moved into the living room section of the loft. Diana took a seat on an armchair while Oliver and Laurel sat on the couch to her right. “I suppose I always knew one day someone would make the connection between Veld and what I’ve been doing,” she said quietly. “I am glad it was the two of you. I assume you are here to ask me to join the Justice League.”

“I am,” Oliver replied.

“I am not an American citizen,” Diana pointed out. “At least, not in this lifetime. I would think that would preclude me from being a member.”

“Well, it’s true that for you to become a part of the team, you’d have to move to the U.S. to be effective since our remit is only within the borders of the United States for the time being,” Oliver said. “I understand you might not want to leave everything that you’re familiar with, but I would be remiss if I didn’t say that the Justice League could use you. Though I am curious as to how you appear the same age now as you did in World War I. Reincarnation?”

“No,” Diana replied. “I am not completely human. I am a demi-goddess, the daughter of the Queen of the Amazons of Themyscira and Zeus.”

Oliver blinked, as did Laurel. That was a new one, and they had recently visited Atlantis. “Okay, that’s one I’m gonna have to wrap my head around for a moment,” Oliver admitted. “Though I suppose it explains why Laurel and I both _reacted_ to you earlier. We had to mentally prepare ourselves and even now I’m struggling not to stare.”

“I apologize for that,” Diana said. “It cannot be helped.”

“It’s fine,” Oliver said. “Look, is there anything I can do to help convince you to consider joining the Justice League, even though it would mean you would have to move from Paris to the U.S.?”

“There is one way,” Diana said. “I have in my possession a magical artifact, the Lasso of Hestia. It compels those wrapped in its embrace to tell the truth. No lie or false truth brought on by insanity can slip passed one’s lips while they are wrapped in the lasso. If you answer questions I have while in its embrace, it would better your chances of my joining the Justice League.”

“Alright,” Oliver said.

“Just like that? No questioning the magical origin? No questioning my saying I’m a demi-goddess?” Diana asked, quirking an eyebrow.

“You can get those answers once I’m in the lasso’s embrace,” Oliver replied. Diana nodded and went into her bedroom. She returned a moment later with a lasso, which glowed as it wrapped around Oliver. “Alright, ask your questions,” Oliver said.

“Why are you so accepting of what I’ve said?” Diana asked.

“In my life, I’ve seen a lot of strange things, and finding out the Greek gods are real and that they did in fact have kids with mortals, while noteworthy, isn’t exactly startling,” Oliver replied. “Besides, I was sent back in time by the closest thing to a god that I’ve ever met. I’m used to the idea of uber-powerful beings.” He looked down at the rope. “Damn this thing does a good job at digging up the truth.”

“It does,” Diana said with a wondering smile. She wanted to ask about the time travel aspect but decided to focus on the important matters. “Why do you want me to join the Justice League?”

“Because the Justice League is not just about defending the United States, it’s about defending the world,” Oliver said. “I want as many heroes as possible to join the Justice League, to stand as champions against the threats that are coming.”

“What threats are those?” Diana asked.

“Fort Rozz, an alien prison, crashed on Earth a little over a month ago, and at some point, the prisoners are going to make a move,” Oliver replied. “But more importantly, there is a Crisis coming. A Crisis that threatens not just the planet, but the entire universe. We didn’t have many champions before I was sent back in time. I intend to change that since there’s no point in trying to follow the old timeline any longer.”

“That’s the second time you have mentioned time travel,” Diana said. “What do you mean by that?”

“A cosmic being known as Mar-Novu gave me a second chance at life when I died seven years from now during the Crisis, and he challenged me to make this second chance count, to inspire a generation of heroes who act selflessly, for the common good instead of their own egos,” Oliver replied. “I was just as guilty of that as the others the last time around. Which is why with every action I take I ask myself if it really serves the most good for everyone or only a select few.”

Diana noticed that Laurel seemed unsurprised by all of this. “You have shared all of this with Laurel?”

“I have,” Oliver said firmly. “She’s my partner in all the ways that matter.”

Diana thought for a moment before asking, “Would I be considered an equal as well if I were to join the Justice League?”

“Yes,” Oliver replied. “The Justice League is not a dictatorship. Every hero has a say. No one’s tactics will be disregarded. If someone doesn’t wish to kill, like with Superman, then they’re nor required to. I do have plans for the initial team to comprise seven members for the full roster, and those original seven members will form the Justice League Council, the ones who set forth how the League operates, who joins and when, everything. Right now, we’re still filling out the initial roster. I think someone as long-lived as you would have plenty of experience to bring to the table.”

Diana unwrapped the lasso from around Oliver. “I believe what you have said is true,” Diana said. “It is an honor that you would ask me, and I have thought about what my answer would be if this time ever came since watching the Battle of Amnesty Bay with my co-workers. I was impressed that you let Miss Lance stand with you against the Trench, and I am impressed with what you have told me here. I will join you.”

“That’s good news,” Oliver said with a smile. “If you need any help moving to the U.S. or anything like that, let me know.”

“Thank you, but I can manage it,” Diana said. She smiled. “I have, after all, accrued quite the fortune in my lifetime. I am not without resources.”

Laurel was looking pensive. “You said that that lasso brings the truth to light, no matter what is going on in the person’s head?” she asked Diana.

“Yes,” Diana asked. “Why?”

“There’s a decision I’m wrestling with,” Laurel replied. “I’ve been given an ultimatum. I can either be a lawyer, or I can be Black Canary. I was wondering if you could wrap me in that and ask me about which one I want to be more.”

“I can do that for you, Miss Lance,” Diana said.

“It’s Laurel,” said the young attorney-turned-hero.

“Diana, then, for both of you,” Diana said.

“Oliver,” said the billionaire scion.

“Whenever you’re ready, Laurel,” Diana said. Laurel took a deep breath and then gave a nod. The lasso wrapped around her a moment later. “Which does your heart desire more, to be Black Canary or to be a lawyer?”

“To be Black Canary,” Laurel said. “I can do more good as Black Canary by putting my fighting skills and my metahuman ability to use in bringing down criminals. I haven’t been able to do as much good as I had hoped by working at C.N.R.I.” Diana nodded and unwrapped the lasso from around Laurel, who looked at Oliver, who was smiling at her in pride. “I guess I have the answer for the Bar Association,” Laurel said quietly. **_*4*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* Yep, sappiness is the name of the game, but what else can one expect when you put these two in a room together in the City of Love, for all intents and purposes?
> 
> *2* I was told by my fellow writers in the Lauriver Discord that there should be some very flustered behavior on Oliver and Laurel’s part the first time they meet Diana in person. So, I hope this worked out right.
> 
> *3* I knew I needed to have a brief confrontation between Clark and Zod and decided now was the time to do it so that it’s something Clark can talk to Oliver about when he and Laurel are back in the States. I hope Zod was suitably menacing.
> 
> *4* I feel that Laurel would take the chance to use something that discerns truth out of doubts and such to find out where her heart truly lay regarding lawyer versus vigilante.


	38. Kryptonite

As promised, Oliver had gotten an appointment with a boutique for Laurel the day after they met with Diana, and so the two didn’t leave Paris until the evening after their meeting with the demi-goddess, who was already beginning arrangements to move to the United States. Oliver assumed that the woman would use some of her considerable wealth to expedite the process of her moving from Paris to New York and getting a work visa, then begin on citizenship. As the Queen Consolidated jet took off, Oliver and Laurel reclined in the seats. “Laurel, we haven’t really talked about how you’re really feeling about your decision,” Oliver said. “I know it can’t be just that easy for you to decide to give up being a lawyer, despite what the lasso helped you see. So, talk to me. How are you really feeling?”

“Frustrated,” Laurel said after a moment. “I feel so frustrated that I’m having to choose between two parts of my life. I knew it was coming, but… I went to law school. I worked my ass off to become a lawyer quicker than everyone else who joined law school with me. I had a pretty bright future as a lawyer. But I know I can do more good as Black Canary. I just wish that the Bar Association wasn’t forcing me to choose, that they would let me capture and prosecute the people I go after. But I guess that’s the hard reality of being a hero. You can’t have everything.”

“No, but as you told me, we can have what’s important despite being cast in the roles of being public heroes,” Oliver replied. “Arthur has to deal with it somewhat; I heard from him there’s been an uptick in the tourist trade in Amnesty Bay with people wanting to catch a glimpse of him, somehow. He no longer has anonymity thanks to all the press, and so he’s had to give a few interviews.”

“I saw those,” Laurel said. “I couldn’t help but feel for him. I know Susan and Lois ran us both ragged during the trip to Amnesty Bay, Atlantis, and D.C. Of course, he does have the luck of being able to retreat to Atlantis when he needs to since he has his responsibilities there. What was that thing he gave you before you we left the airfield?”

“A beacon of sorts,” Oliver said. “If I activate it, he’ll come to Starling City. He asked that I do it only for those times which need him to join with the Justice League and not just to chat.”

“Fair enough,” Laurel said, amused. “Thanks for listening to me vent, Ollie. I just hope I don’t have to deal with Duckworth again. That smarmy bastard will probably try and convince me I can’t work with C.N.R.I. even though the Bar Association says that they can’t stop that from happening since I am duly authorized, legal fiction or not, to arrest scumbags.”

“We could always call Henry, ask him to dig into Duckworth and find something nasty to nail him with,” Oliver suggested slyly.

“As amusing as that would be, Ollie, I don’t think we want to get a reputation for doing stuff like that,” Laurel said. “We need to be above petty revenge, no matter how satisfying it might be in the short-term.”

“Alright,” Oliver said. “I just don’t like that he tried to pretend that we couldn’t help C.N.R.I. with their cases and that he was speaking with the Bar Association’s authority. There’s gotta be some payback on that.”

“And there will be,” Laurel said. “I spent quite a lot of time on the phone with the Bar Association telling them about his visit in detail. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a new Bar Association representative waiting in Starling and Duckworth is being put on probation for what he tried to do.”

“Karmic justice,” Oliver said with a nod.

“Exactly,” Laurel said. “Speaking of, there is one good thing about this trip.”

“Oh?” Oliver asked.

“Well, more than one good thing,” Laurel said. “We got Diana onboard. We got to have a romantic getaway in one of the most romantic cities in the world. And we didn’t have to suit up once. For once, we had some good karma coming our way.”

“Yeah, I’m just worried about when the other shoe drops,” Oliver said.

“Whatever happens, we’ll face it together, Ollie,” Laurel said. “I know you’re worried about the Kryptonians that were on Fort Rozz. Is that what you’ve been working on with those special arrows? How is a rock supposed to stop them?”

Oliver sighed. “The rock is Kryptonite,” he said. “Radioactive pieces of their homeworld. It’s the only thing on the planet that can kill them. And the first time I use it, I’m going to have to field questions from not only Clark, but also Waller and Lane, because those two will want to know what it is I used to kill a Kryptonian. I’m not looking forward to that, because this is one of those things that I’m _required_ to share under the president’s guidelines for the open communication between the Justice League and the various government divisions. I wish I didn’t _need_ that kind of weapon, but I’ve faced evil Kryptonians before, and now there’s a whole _army_ of them out there, Laurel. It’s why I’m not limiting my Kryptonite weapons to arrows. I’ve made a few daggers, and I have plans for a Kryptonite-edged sword. I’d rather be overprepared and not need this than have none of it and need an ace in the hole.”

“How badly do you think Clark will take it?” Laurel asked.

“One of his allies is stockpiling weapons that can kill him,” Oliver said dryly. “I think he’s going to be _pissed_ and lose whatever trust he has in me.”

“Or he’s going to recognize that there’s only two Kryptonians on this planet who aren’t criminals and have the same strengths he has,” Laurel said. “Clark is a smart man, and even if he gets mulish, Lois will set him straight quick enough. She’s a general’s daughter; well, D.E.O. director’s daughter now, I guess. She would acknowledge the need for a weapon to defeat enemies like Kryptonians even though she loves Clark, and she would be able to talk him around.”

“Well, she _is_ Lois Lane,” Oliver said dryly, and Laurel laughed. Both of them knew how quick with her words Lois was after spending two weeks in her constant company.

**_*DC*_ **

Arthur Curry stood in the Archives of Atlantis with his chief scientific advisor, Nuidis Vulko. “How is the work on the American embassy going?” he asked.

“Very well, my King,” Vulko replied. “We should have it fully operational within the next two months. We are leaving it as open-ended as possible to accommodate whatever staff, belongings, and families they might bring with them. We are also vetting those who will be charged with securing the site until the Americans can take over, to ensure none of them suffer too greatly from disloyalty brought on by xenophobia. I understand that the projected time for both embassies, theirs and ours, to become operational is midsummer on the surface. Is that correct?”

“It is,” Arthur confirmed. “They do not have a viable building near the water, so we will have to build one of our own. They are allowing us to keep our cultural identity in creating our embassy as they have others’ embassies. Because of the current temperatures in the surface world, building anything is unviable until Spring sets in. Once that’s done, we can build in earnest, but it will still take until mid-summer at best, and President Trumbull and I agree both embassies should go active at the same time, to show our unity.” Arthur sighed. “What of the unrest?”

“There is still much unrest about the idea that there will be humans living amongst us, my King,” Vulko said. “Those who rally to Orm’s call and those who act as Xebel’s voice among our people continue to sow dissent, but your daily messages showing the surface world, showing that the people are not that different beyond their inability to breathe underwater as we can without the aid of machines, has helped significantly. If we continue to tread down this path, the only problems we will have to deal with when the embassy is established is those few radicals who remain active after the failed assassination attempt on Ambassador Ford.”

“Good,” Arthur said.

“Arthur, there you are,” Mera’s voice called from behind them. Arthur and Vulko turned, Vulko giving a low bow to the Queen of Atlantis as she entered. “I’ve been looking for you,” Mera said as she came up to him.

“Is something wrong?” Arthur asked.

“There are petitioners who are desperate for an audience with their king,” Mera said. “I have tried to act in the capacity they need, but they are adamant that their petition can only be heard by the king.”

“Very well,” Arthur sighed. “Let us go and see what this is about.” Vulko, Mera, and Arthur left the archives. **_*1*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Dinah Laurel Lance yawned as she entered C.N.R.I. for what would be the last time. She had a box in her car to put her few personal belongings in when the time came to pack up, but for now she needed to check on whether the Bar Association representative had been by during her time away, be it Duckworth or someone new. Still, she had had to come in because she needed to get started on the paperwork that would transfer the position of Director to her Deputy Director, Adrian Chase. She was only mildly surprised when she found Adrian hard at work at his desk in the main room. “Good morning, Adrian,” Laurel said tiredly.

“Morning, Laurel,” Adrian said, putting down his pen. “How was your trip?”

“Illuminating,” Laurel replied. “Has Duckworth or anyone else representing the Bar Association been by?”

“A Harold Cooper has been by once a day since you left,” Adrian replied. “So, what’s going on?”

“I’ll be stepping down as Director of C.N.R.I.,” Laurel said. “I’m afraid this means that you’ll be having to step up to the position. I’m going to go get started on the paperwork.”

“This is bullshit!” Adrian suddenly snapped. “You’re a damned good lawyer, and you shouldn’t be being _punished_ for doing what no one else has the guts to do, to stand against corruption and crime! You’re _authorized_ to arrest criminals! That you prosecute them, too, shouldn’t even be an issue!” **_*2*_**

“I know, Adrian, I know,” Laurel said softly, putting a hand on her friend’s shoulder (and he had become her friend in the past couple of months). “But I can still help C.N.R.I. as Black Canary, and I _will_. You have my word on that. And you’ll do a good job as Director. You practically were director in all but name as it is when I was away for those two weeks dealing with Aquaman and Atlantis. You’ll be fine, Adrian.”

Adrian deflated a bit. “I know,” Adrian said softly. “It just seems so _stupid_ that you’re being punished for doing what’s right. How is that fair?”

“Maybe one day the law will change and a vigilante being a lawyer won’t be illegal so long as they’re tied to the Justice League,” Laurel said with a shrug. “But until that time…” Laurel headed for her office for what would be the last time while Adrian returned to his desk.

While Laurel could understand Adrian’s frustration, and she felt it herself, she also knew where the Bar Association was coming from. If she had ever had the chance to separate Black Canary from Laurel Lance, than there wouldn’t be a conflict of interest either in her prosecuting the criminals she brought in or in the cases she tried. But now, with her being a known vigilante/hero, the Bar Association had already received what had to be complaints from lawyers whose clients had capitulated to C.N.R.I.’s offered deals while she was away, citing that the officers of the court could be frightened into doing things Laurel’s way because of who she was, rather than because her arguments were persuasive or because the law was the law, even for the wealthy and corrupt. So, yes, she understood where the Bar Association was coming from. It was still painful, though, knowing that she had gone to law school essentially for nothing.

Laurel spent the next little while going through the paperwork that would transfer the title of Director to Adrian, and soon enough, all that was left to be needed was Adrian’s signature on the appropriate pages. Laurel glanced up as a knock came at the door. An African American man with lighter-toned skin was on the other side of the door. She waved him in. “Harold Cooper, I’m guessing,” she said.

“That’s right, Miss Lance,” Cooper said. “You should know that Mr. Duckworth has been put on probation for attempting to enforce his own views on your unique situation under the guise of speaking with the Bar Assocation’s authority. Whatever you decide, whether Oliver Queen or you help C.N.R.I. with their cases is not an issue. It is your acting as an officer of the court while also being an active vigilante that is the issue here.”

“Yes, so the associate I spoke to on the phone a few days ago told me,” Laurel replied. “I’ve made my decision, Mr. Cooper. While I might well have a bright future as a lawyer, my true passion is bringing criminals to justice, and I can do a lot more of that as Black Canary than as a lawyer. I have already done the paperwork to transfer authority to my deputy director, and I have a box in my car for my belongings.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Miss Lance,” Cooper said. “I looked over your file. You have an impressive record for an attorney as young as you are. The field will definitely suffer for your loss.”

“I appreciate your kind words, Mr. Cooper, but the decision is the best one for me to make in my life,” Laurel replied. “Thank you for being willing to wait for my answer. You have a pleasant day.”

“You as well, Miss Lance,” Cooper said. “Goodbye.” He turned and left the office. Laurel caught Adrian’s eye and waved him into her office. He entered.

“So, I suppose this is it,” he said.

“Yes, it is,” Laurel said. “I have some paperwork that needs your signature.” She and Adrian spent the next five minutes going over the new contract that would make in Director of C.N.R.I.

After that, Laurel went out to her car and got the box she had brought with her before returning to her office. She slowly gathered up her belongings, including the framed certificate that established her as a practicing lawyer, something that would be a relic once the Bar Association processed the paperwork to disbar her from practicing so long as she remained a vigilante. She exited the office to find the whole office waiting for her. She set her box down and went up to each of her now-former employees, who, more importantly, had also been her friends. There were hugs and tears, but eventually Laurel left C.N.R.I. for the last time as one of its employees, her box under one arm and tears streaming down her face as she approached her car. She knew what she was doing as Black Canary was important, but she was going to _miss_ being a lawyer, miss finding that one clue to make a scumbag’s whole world unravel. **_*3*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver had been surprised to get a call from Clark asking to meet him but had quickly agreed to the meeting. Now the two stood on the rooftop of Queen Consolidated, both in dress suits, looking down at the city below them. “So, what’s on your mind, Clark?” Oliver asked.

“I had a visitor the other night, while you were in Paris,” Clark replied. “I woke up and just knew something was wrong in the apartment. I checked on Kara first, worried her aunt had gotten in and was trying to convince her to leave with her, but she was fine, sleeping soundly and muttering in Kryptonese. Then I went out to the living room. A man was waiting there. It was Zod, Oliver.”

“What did he want?” Oliver asked, even as his stomach clenched.

“He said he was there to offer me a chance to side with my own people, but I’m sure he already knew what my answer was going to be and had just shown up so that he would have a valid excuse for threatening me,” Clark said. “He took the Phantom Zone projector, said he would use it on me only when he had killed Lois and Kara, and my city was burning. He is cold, calculating, ruthless… the worst sort of traits distilled into one person. I can’t let him ruin my family, Oliver. But I can’t beat him. He was trained to be a warrior, and I could never do anything like martial arts because there was always the chance someone would get overeager and land a really hard punch on me, only to break their hand. So, I don’t even have the skills you and the others do.” Clark sighed, looking out across Starling City. “Oliver, I’m worried about Lois. She is so brave, and she will not sit idly by when Zod or one of his people come to kill her and Kara. She’ll try to fight, and she’ll die. I can’t lose her, Oliver. It’d be like if you lost Laurel. I don’t want to find out what kind of man I become if I lose Lois.” **_*4*_**

“You won’t,” Oliver said. “Come with me, Clark. I need to tell you about this, anyways. And it could help you, if you decide to forgive me.”

“Forgive you?” Clark asked. Oliver didn’t reply, instead heading for the rooftop access door. Clark followed behind him.

The two were in Oliver’s Camaro soon enough and rolling through the streets of Starling City. “So, you never said how things went with Wonder Woman in Paris,” Clark said, having surmised that Oliver wasn’t going to talk about whatever he felt he would need Clark’s forgiveness for until they got to wherever they were going, which Clark assumed was Oliver’s base of operations here in Starling City. Clark had to admit he was kind of looking forward to seeing another hero’s base of operations. “Did you find her or was it a wild goose chase?”

“We found her,” Oliver said. “We also found out why she looks the same now as she did in World War II. Turns out the Greek pantheon is real, and she’s a demi-goddess.”

“Which god or goddess is she the daughter of?” Clark asked, before shaking his head. “I cannot believe I just asked that question.”

“Zeus, and I feel that,” Oliver said ruefully. “I’ve seen some strange things in my life and that’s helped me accept a lot of crazy shit, but a demi-goddess? That’s a new one, even for me.”

“So, what happened with her?” Clark asked.

“She had this lasso that can make the one wrapped in it tell the truth, no matter how hard its fought or what false truth they’ve convinced themselves to believe,” Oliver replied. “She asked me questions. I told her about the Crisis and coming back in time, as well as about Fort Rozz. That was enough to convince her. But I think the time is coming, Clark, when I might have to come clean about everything. I don’t know when that’ll be, but the time is coming. It’s getting harder to pretend that I don’t have future knowledge, even if it is obsolete after Malcolm died and you showed yourself.”

“So, you going to tell me her name, or am I going to have to find that out on my own?” Clark asked.

“It’s not my secret to tell, so the latter,” Oliver replied.

“So, what else did you get up to in Paris?” Clark asked after a couple of minutes of silence.

“We had a romantic getaway to replace the fact that we didn’t get a Valentine’s Day,” Oliver replied. “We did the tourism thing, had a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant, and even had an appointment at a boutique so that Laurel could get a few dresses for any future galas the president might decide to throw that we’re required to attend.”

“Think that’ll happen often?” Clark asked.

“I hope not,” Oliver said honestly. “It’s not my favorite thing in the world to do, considering how much corporate corruption is at work at those things. I have to remind myself I’m not Green Arrow when I’m there, even though I’d like to be.” Clark laughed at that. “It’s true. I know it just goes into the whole Robin Hood thing, but I can’t stand that corruption anymore. I keep Queen Consolidated as clean as I can get it as a result.”

The two fell into a companionable silence until Oliver pulled into the underground garage attached to the Quiver. “We’re here,” he said. The two of them got out of the car and entered the Quiver proper. “Clark, I want you to know this has _nothing_ to do with you. I trust you completely and I have no doubts about your honesty or integrity. But you have to understand that you and Kara are the only good Kryptonians I’ve ever met. I dealt with a couple of evil Kryptonians, so to speak, in the future, and now there’s an entire army out there.”

“What’s this about, Oliver?” Clark asked.

“You know about lead and red solar energy,” Oliver said. “But you have another weakness, and this one can be fatal to Kryptonians.”

“Fatal?” Clark repeated.

“Fatal,” Oliver confirmed. “It is the one thing that can cut you despite your general immunity, and in sufficient quantities it will weaken you to below human levels if exposed long enough. It’s called Kryptonite. Radioactive pieces of your homeworld that have made it all the way to Earth. Ever since Fort Rozz crashed, I’ve been scouring the planet for meteorite fragments that could have come from Krypton since I knew what to look for. I won’t lie to you, Clark. I’ve made sixty Kryptonite arrows, ten Kryptonite daggers, and I have plans for a Kryptonite-edged sword. As I said… none of this is aimed at you. But I hope you understand I can’t let a threat like Zod and his forces stand unaccounted for. I needed a weapon that could kill them if necessary.”

“So, you have a stockpile of weapons that can kill Kryptonians, including me,” Clark said.

“Yes,” Oliver replied. “And I hate to say this, but the first time I use it, I’m going to have answer questions about what it is and where I got it from the D.E.O. and A.R.G.U.S. It’s unfortunately part of the required transparency between the Justice League and the other branches of government like the D.E.O. that I provide them this sort of intelligence. However, I can provide you with a chunk of it, protected by a lead box, and I’m sure that you and that Fortress of yours can come up with a new suit shielded against Kryptonite.”

“You’re being honest with me, so I’ll be honest with you,” Clark said. “This is kind of hard to swallow, Oliver, that you’ve done all of this without telling me beforehand. How am I supposed to trust you, knowing that you’ve been stockpiling the kinds of weapons that can kill me, and not limiting yourself to lead and red solar energy like everyone else? Your smart enough to create those kinds of weapons, and you’re more than a match for the Kryptonian military thanks to your training. Get them exposed to red solar energy and they’re as weak as any human. Why the hell would you create weapons that can kill Kryptonians straight out instead of going for those options?”

“Because you and I both know Kryptonians who have access to all of their powers will stay out of range of red solar grenades or anything else, especially if they’re trained by the military,” Oliver replied. “Kryptonite will bring them down without issue, and when you’re fighting a protracted engagement against a superior force, you use every method in your arsenal to take them down. As I said, I’m willing to give you a chunk to take to the Fortress and use to develop a new suit that blocks the radiation. You’re my friend, Clark, and I do trust you. I know you won’t abuse my trust. I’m sorry that I’ve abused yours. I should have told you from the beginning that I was searching for Kryptonite.” Oliver rubbed the back of his neck. “I guess I’m still trapped in my training in some ways. Compartmentalize everything, share only what is needed.”

“What does this have to do with Lois?” Clark asked.

“I can give you a Kryptonite dagger to give to Lois, so that if the worst happens and Zod or one of his soldiers corners she and Kara while you’re not there to protect them, that Lois can use it to protect herself and Kara,” Oliver replied. “I know it’s not ideal, but it’s the best I can come up with.”

“First, I want to feel how Kryptonite affects my people, see what it is you’re inflicting on them,” Clark said firmly.

“Alright,” Oliver replied. He went to a workbench and picked up a dagger. Clark performed X-Ray Vision and noticed the sheath was made out of lead. “Lead blocks the radiation from the Kryptonite,” Oliver said by way of explanation. “Are you ready?” Clark nodded. “Here we go.” Oliver slid the Kryptonite dagger out of its sheath, and it began to glow at the same time as the veins of Clark’s body reacted to it. He stumbled, then collapsed to his knees, gripping a nearby column. Oliver slid the dagger back into its sheath, and Clark got shakily to his feet. “I’m sorry,” Oliver said. “Like I said, I know you may not be able to forgive me for stockpiling these weapons. But I can’t ignore the threat Zod and his soldiers pose.”

“I’ll be honest, Oliver, that felt like my veins were on fire,” Clark said. “That isn’t just a weapon of death. It’s a torture device for Kryptonians. I can’t say I can understand why you would create such a thing. But… Lois needs something to protect her, and you _have_ offered to let me take some to craft a Kryptonite-proof suit with the aid of. You’re not hiding this until we’re in battle against my kind, and for that, I’m grateful. But I won’t lie to you. My trust in you has diminished slightly.”

“I don’t blame you, Clark,” Oliver said, picking up a lead box and handing it and the dagger over to Clark. “Do with these as you will.” Clark nodded, and left the Quiver with a pensive expression on his face. Oliver watched him go, saddened but understanding that what he had done would cause Clark to lose some of his trust in Oliver. That was the price of being prepared for everything; you had to be prepared for the fallout of that preparation as well. **_*5*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> This was the final chapter of Episode 16. The next chapter, and Episode 17, will take place three weeks after this one. 
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* I just wanted to give a look at Atlantis and how that was playing out.
> 
> *2* Just wanted to show Adrian’s darker side for a moment and begin laying the groundwork for him potentially becoming Vigilante further down the road.
> 
> *3* Writing this paragraph was particularly heartbreaking since Laurel worked so hard to become a lawyer and now it’s over and she’s struggling to deal with this new reality.
> 
> *4* This can be seen as an allusion to *either* Kingdom Come or Injustice, but it was initially meant to be an allusion to the latter since I forgot about Kingdom Come.
> 
> *5* I didn’t want Clark to be just completely accepting of Oliver stockpiling Kryptonite weapons and planning to make more, even with his giving Clark some to use to make a Kryptonite-proof suit. But I also knew that Clark would accept the offer so that Lois has a way of defending herself and Kara, even if its reluctantly accepting such a potent weapon against his kind being in his vicinity.


	39. Perspectives II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So, I actually ended up deciding that I’m going to finish “Age” before I start working in earnest on “Emerald Archer”. But I am plotting out the latter so I have a road map to follow when the time comes. Now, here we go with Episode 17.

Oliver Queen stood in his office at Queen Consolidated, looking out across Starling City, scratching at his chin thoughtfully. Laurel had finally prevailed upon him to get the Van Dyke, and he was still getting used to the feel of it. It just felt _odd_ not to have full facial hair, be it short scruff as he had worn for close to a decade in the last timeline or a beard like he had had during his time in Slabside and the past couple of months in the new timeline. As he looked out over the city, Oliver thought over the past three weeks since his return from Paris and what had gone on in his life. Clark was, naturally, more aloof towards Oliver due to his possession of Kryptonite weapons, and Lois had had a distinct chill in his direction the last time they had had an interview session for the book (though she had thanked him for the Kryptonite dagger that she could use to protect herself from Zod or his men).

Oliver hadn’t expected anything less from either of them. He just hoped that when the time came to fight Zod and his army, Clark came to understand _why_ he had chosen the path that he did, why he hadn’t restricted himself solely to red solar technology. Though he _had_ built a few arrows with that capacity, Oliver knew in greater numbers he would need to use Kryptonite weapons. He just hoped that Clark was able to construct a Kryptonite proof suit before that day came. If not… No, he couldn’t think like that. Clark had access to technology that was _light years_ ahead of anything on Earth except, perhaps, the Atlanteans; if anyone could forge a Kryptonite-proof suit in a matter of weeks, it was Clark. Oliver would simply trust that his friend was as smart and capable as he seemed.

Oliver had also finally had success in bringing Caitlin Snow onboard at Queen Consolidated with the request that she study Laurel’s genetic structure, see if she could find out if her powers were caused by something genetic. Oliver knew it was, of course, but he wanted there to be proof of the metagene so he and Laurel could speak of it openly. He also thought it would be a good idea for science to know about the metagene and how it could activate, so that they could take the proper precautions. He knew that far too many with the metagene had gotten a little crazy when they were granted powers. Barry and now Laurel had been the exceptions rather than the rule. Even Caitlin had gone a little crazy, albeit due to her split personality.

Though, if Oliver recalled right, Barry said she hadn’t developed _that_ until she went to see Amunet Black. When she had first transformed into her icy side, she had still been Caitlin, according to Barry and Cisco. Or at least she had been _aware_ of her memories as Caitlin, whereas after Amunet Black, Frost and Caitlin had been two separate identities without any knowledge of one another until they found a way to communicate. Oliver shook his head. Metahuman stuff was beyond his knowledgebase. He just hoped that he could keep Caitlin at Queen Consolidated and that she would build friendships that would ground her, keep her human. She was working in Applied Sciences, and he had heard from Emiko that Cisco Ramon had talked her into having lunch with him and the other two from Q-Core. Who knows, maybe they would convince her to join Q-Core. That would be helpful. **_*1*_**

Still, it was good to have someone he knew could be trusted working on ‘discovering’ the source of Laurel’s power, since he could essentially block all other attempts by unscrupulous scientists who would likely perform invasive procedures simply to ‘be thorough’, regardless of Laurel’s discomfort levels. Oliver wasn’t going to put his girlfriend through that, no matter how much he wanted the knowledge of the metagene to be widespread. Laurel’s self-confidence was burgeoning, and he wanted to help it grow, not put her in a position where she would be treated like little more than a lab rat, good only for experimentation. Also, if someone treated Laurel like that, he would be liable to put an arrow in them and cause a lawsuit. Best to trust someone like Caitlin, who while cold was also highly ethical. From what Oliver knew, she had been one of those who was against the experiments General Eiling performed on Grodd that turned the gorilla into what he was after the accelerator exploded. That spoke greatly of Caitlin’s personality even before she became a member of Team Flash. Something Oliver had been glad to recall because the last time he trusted an earlier version of a friend, it hadn’t turned out okay. The aftermath of Tommy exposing him as Green Arrow was still being felt all these months later.

Finally, there was the message that he had gotten from Amanda Waller. While he had been in Washington with Arthur and the others, Oliver had given Waller the lead on Cayden James and Helix, trusting that Waller’s usual efficiency would deal with that particular line of attack, even though it was unlikely to happen since it had been Emiko’s leadership of the Ninth Circle, and specifically her vendetta against Oliver, that had seen that particular manipulation come to fruition. Still, Oliver knew that A.R.G.U.S., especially under Lyla, wasn’t in the policy of snatching up ‘innocent hacktivists’, the way Alena had apparently sold it to Felicity. But Felicity had been adamant in her belief that that was all Cayden James had been and refused to hear a word against him, even though it had cost them the tacit protection that A.R.G.U.S. had given their team. But Cayden James, at the end of the day, was a cyber-terrorist, as were Helix, and Oliver would be _damned_ if he let them have their way any longer, especially now that Felicity wasn’t around to harp on him about how misunderstood Helix and Cayden had been. He had told Waller she should look into it and received a message from Waller yesterday that it had been taken care of, including a link to a newspaper article about a group of hackers being massacred. Oliver had grimaced upon realizing Waller had let the Suicide Squad come out to play with Helix. He didn’t particularly like those people, but he wasn’t sure they deserved the Squad. Still, Helix was taken care of, and that was one more problem off of Oliver’s plate.

Now, they were playing the waiting game with Zod, wondering when the Kryptonian warlord would make his first move. It was one of the few things Oliver and Clark still communicated on. Oliver had also received word from Diana that she had successfully moved from Paris to New York City and was now working at the Met. He had also received a message from Bruce Wayne that he was ‘close’ to deciding about joining the Justice League. Oliver was surprised that Bruce was even still considering the offer, since he had expected to hear from him much sooner. Though, Oliver thought ruefully, it wasn’t surprising. The Justice League had been in the news quite a bit, giving Bruce an eyeful of what they were all about. It made sense that he wanted to take his time, consider every angle, before deciding on his course of action regarding joining the Justice League.

Oliver sighed and turned back to his desk. He had paperwork to do and putting it off wasn’t going to make it disappear, no matter how much he might like it to.

**_*DC*_ **

Dinah Laurel Lance smiled at the woman who had purchased a bouquet of white roses and said, “Thanks for shopping at Lance Floral. I hope the flowers are to your satisfaction.”

“They are,” the woman said. “Thank you, Miss Lance.” The woman exited the shop, and Laurel sat back on the stool behind the checkout counter, her smile fading slightly, but still there. 

The past three weeks had been a little rough. After leaving C.N.R.I., she had broken down that evening in Oliver’s arms, mourning the loss of her career even though she had a much better one waiting for her as Black Canary. But she had also been worrying over what to do with herself now that she was out of work, because she just couldn’t sit around twiddling her thumbs. It wasn’t who she was. Oliver had suggested she take over at Lance Floral, noting that things could be re-arranged for more than one checkout counter to be had. He had then dryly pointed out that it didn’t matter how many flowers the shop sold since the salary and such was paid for out of the shell corporation he used as a front for his vigilante activities, Lian Yu Holdings. After all, what good was the cover for their base of operations if it bellied up? So, Laurel was guaranteed a steady income, which she was grateful for, even though she wished she was _earning_ that income, which was why she made a point to be a bright, happy person whenever she was working a shift, even if she was tired from the previous night’s work.

Oliver’s prediction had finally come true. The city’s criminals had cottoned on to the fact that Black Canary didn’t use her Cry to kill, and so they were coming out of the woodwork, beginning their various criminal activities all over again. Drug peddling, sex trafficking, robbery, murder-for-hire… Because Starling City was so big, Oliver had decided that Black Canary, Green Arrow, and Wild Dog should all patrol separate parts of the city. She had patrolled the Eastern Glades last night while Rene handled the Western Glades and Oliver the Southern Glades. Laurel had stopped a home invasion-turned-sexual assault before it could get very far, three muggings, and a couple of bodega robberies during her patrol last night, and she had only had to use her Cry once. The rest of the time, she had left the bastards beaten and bloody, and completely unconscious. She had also stayed with the victims until the police arrived, just to be safe. She was sure she had seen a degree of respect in the arresting officers’ eyes when they got her statement (unlike Ollie, she did believe in making a full statement, blame her law background).

Laurel had also talked a bit with Clark and Lois over the last three weeks, working on smoothing things over with them after the revelation of what Oliver had been up to regarding Kryptonite weapons. She thought that they were weakening slightly on their initial reactions, which had been understandably irritated, and she was sure that things would be back to smooth sailing between them, though she worried it would take dealing with an attack by Zod and his people before they fully understood why Oliver had chosen the path that he had. Laurel would admit she would be just as concerned if she found out he was making weapons that attacked those with the metagene, so she fully understood where they were coming from. She thought the fact that she could understand had helped her case significantly with Clark and Lois.

Of course, Laurel _did_ have cause to be concerned about stuff like that, now. Oliver had managed to recruit Caitlin Snow to do the research into the metagene since officially it didn’t ‘exist’, yet. He promised Laurel that Caitlin had always been an ethical scientist and that there would be nothing untoward from the woman’s research. He also said if something _did_ happen that Laurel was uncomfortable with, that she should tell him and he would put a stop to it. He told her that she was more important to him than getting the news about the metagene out.

But, so far, Dr. Snow had been nothing but impeccable in her methods of research and she had talked Laurel through every procedure she wanted to do as a way of discovering the source of her powers. Laurel had actually gone out with Dr. Snow for a drink a couple of nights ago, surprising Dr. Snow that she would do something like that. Laurel got the impression that Dr. Snow wasn’t exactly sociable and hadn’t had many friends in her life, which was common for greatly intelligent people. But Laurel knew that Oliver worried about what would happen if Dr. Snow’s metagene ever manifested (he had explained this was why he had tried so hard to recruit Dr. Snow), and Laurel wanted to help fulfill Oliver’s desire to keep Dr. Snow connected to her humanity. Laurel hoped that one day soon, she could forego calling Dr. Snow by her title and use her name. She had already invited Dr. Snow to call her Laurel, which she was, reluctantly, though she sometimes still called Laurel ‘Miss Lance’.

The only other thing of note that had happened the past three weeks was that John Constantine had finally gotten everything together to give both Laurel and Thea the protection against Dark Magic, and Laurel would be the first to admit that even though she was a little weirded out by having a tattoo after so long avoiding having any that she was also relieved that she would no longer have to worry about Darhk holding her still with his magic while he stabbed her and carved up her insides, the way she had had nightmares about ever since Oliver had told her the truth of how she had died in the future. A future that wouldn’t happen now that she had the protection Oliver had pushed her to get.

Laurel perked up as the door to the shop opened. “Welcome to Lance Floral,” she said with a smile, before her smile faded as she saw who was standing there, looking uncomfortable. “What are you doing here?” she asked frostily.

“I know I’m the last person you want to see, Laurel,” Dinah Lance said, “but you’re the only one I can ask this of since your father’s in rehab. I-I’ve been trying to get ahold of Sara, but her phone is deactivated. Did she tell you where she was going?”

“No,” Laurel said, which was the truth. Sara hadn’t had to tell Laurel where she was going because Laurel already knew. And she wasn’t about to get into the intricacies of time travel and heroism through the ages with her mother. “If that’s all, you can go. Paying customers only.”

“Laurel, I know you hate me for what I did, but I am still your mother,” Dinah said. “I still care for you, and I can’t help but worry about the path you’re on. I didn’t even know you’d been disbarred until I went to C.N.R.I. to see you and found a strange man in your office. He was quite forthcoming about what happened. Why is it that I have to find out from a perfect stranger that my passionate and strong-willed daughter has given up a promising career as a lawyer to run around in a costume and scream at people?”

“That’s hardly what I do, Dinah,” Laurel replied frostily. “I realized that my life was always leading towards vigilantism. If you and Dad are so upset about what I do and who I am, than maybe you should’ve spent a little more time being parents instead telling me it was _my job_ to protect Sara, _my job_ to be the best I could be, _my job_ to be the perfect daughter while you spoiled Sara rotten. I had to swallow my pride so many times, I had to tell myself my own thoughts on things weren’t wanted or needed, I had to basically deny who I was in my bones to be your perfect daughter. Well, I’m done trying to play that game. From now on, I’m being my most authentic self, and if you and Dad have a problem with it, you can both go to hell. Now get the fuck out of my place of business. You’re not welcome here.” 

Dinah opened her mouth to object, but then she noticed the hard glint in her daughter’s green eyes, something she had never seen there before, even when Laurel had cut ties with her weeks ago. Something had fundamentally changed in her daughter. Whoever Black Canary was, she wasn’t the woman that Dinah had raised. Slowly, Dinah turned and left the shop. Laurel sat back on the stool, having not even realized she had stood during the confrontation, and sighed. Why couldn’t either of her parents be proud of her? **_*2*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Arthur Curry sighed as the group of tourists moved away, excited. They had spotted him in the diner and recognized him from the pictures that had appeared in the _Daily Planet_ from the gala that welcomed Atlantis back to the world that the president had thrown. They had been quite insistent in getting a picture with the King of Atlantis, who when not attending galas wore jeans, t-shirts, and a hoodie. Arthur had agreed, knowing it could only improve relations and Atlantis’ standing in the eyes of the common citizen. He knew that Oliver and Laurel understood how he felt, to a degree, being the only public heroes from the Justice League besides himself.

Still, not everything was too bad. Amnesty bay’s uptick in tourism had seen the economy for his hometown booming, and he was willing to do what he needed to do to help that economic boom. And this was just the wintertime, where hardly anyone would travel. Come summertime, when everyone was traveling for family vacations, Amnesty Bay was going to see even more of a boom. There was already talks with the company behind the Marriott chain of hotels to build one in Amnesty Bay to capitalize on the expected rise in tourism come summer. Even so, such a hotel would only be finished in the late summer, and so there was talk of clearing some land just outside of the city limits and establishing an R.V. park there. All in all, Amnesty Bay was on its way to becoming a tourist hotspot, and Arthur knew that that would be the case for years to come, especially if he maintained a presence in Amnesty Bay, which he had every intention of doing.

Oliver hadn’t activated the beacon as of yet, but Arthur had kept in touch with him via cell phone every time he was in Amnesty Bay. Oliver had admitted to him that he had created weapons that could kill Kryptonians like Clark, since there was an entire army of Kryptonians out there. Arthur had been grimly accepting of it, acknowledging the fact that they needed those defenses. Oliver had even told him about the substance that could kill Kryptonians, which he called Kryptonite, and Arthur had his people searching for meteors in the oceans that might contain that ore. He would fashion his own weapon, though he also had plans, considering the threat level, to search for the fabled Trident of Poseidon, one of the only weapons that could hurt gods. If it could do that, it could also hurt Kryptonians.

Arthur sighed as he spotted another group of tourists, one of them pointing at him. Once more into the breach…

**_*DC*_ **

Diana Prince smiled softly as she examined the piece that had been brought in last night. The Met was capitalizing on the revelation that Atlantis existed to revitalize their paintings of Greek myths, and they were getting ready to unveil the exhibit in the next few days. She had started working here the week after meeting with Oliver and Laurel, having moved rather quickly. One of the benefits of being independently wealthy was that certain things took very little time. Of course, Diana could always just be a lady of leisure if she so chose, but she _enjoyed_ working with art and fashion; this particular ‘lifetime’, she was focusing on art. The next would be fashion.

Life in New York City was different from life in Paris. Even some of the criminals here were different. One man among the first bunches of criminals she had taken down had whined about how he had left Starling City to get away from crazy vigilantes with esoteric weapons. Diana had promptly knocked him out, quelling his complaints, and left them for the police to find. Until she was officially unveiled as a member of the Justice League, she couldn’t act in the same way that Superman or Green Arrow and Black Canary did.

Of course, she had also had to deal with the initial reactions to her beauty all over again. More than a few young men had had their jaws hanging upon seeing her, and even a few women couldn’t help but take a second glance when they saw her. Some were envious, which she had understood since it happened, and some were desirous, which was familiar since Diana had had similar relations with fellow Amazons on Themyscira, though nothing serious. She had been surprised to find out such relations had been frowned upon until the past, oh, ten years or so, and even then, there were plenty who frowned upon same-sex couples. Diana didn’t understand it. Love was love. But now people were used to her presence, though some of the men still gave her sly glances, like they wanted to ‘ask her out’ but were too afraid to. This, too, was a common occurrence for her, and the few men who were brave enough to ask, she tried to turn down as gently as possible. Even all these years later, she still mourned Steve’s loss, and in truth she didn’t want to connect with anyone on that level because then she would feel that same pain all over again when they grew old and died. It was better to be alone, she had decided, than suffer that heartbreak again and again.

Diana had made sure Oliver had her number so that he could call upon her whenever the Justice League was needed. In truth, she had gotten a secondary ‘burner phone’ as the television shows called it solely for her business as Wonder Woman.

The news had picked up on the fact that Wonder Woman had moved from Paris to New York City, and there were plenty of reporters all searching for her. Diana had decided she would give such an interview to none of them. If she were to give an interview, ever, she would do so to one of those who were trusted by Oliver and the rest of the Justice League: Lois Lane or Susan Williams. Others may try to twist her words in some way. She had become wise to the deceptions sometimes perpetrated by media outlets, particularly those that were called ‘tabloids’ and ‘gossip magazines’. She wasn’t about to let her words be twisted by the likes of them.

Diana sighed and turned her attention back to her work. She would be ready for battle whenever Oliver called. Until then, she had her work, and her patrols of New York City, to keep her occupied. **_*3*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Hal Jordan was comfortably ensconced in the cockpit of an experimental fighter, a familiar situation for him. Carol Ferris had finally accepted him back at work, and he had been flying ever since, with his night-time activities being focused on stopping crime as Green Lantern. As a member of the Green Lantern Corps, he simply couldn’t stand idly by when a crime was happening, not when he had the power (and the responsibility) to stop it. He was getting quite the reputation.

He had also made his report to Oa about Atlantis. Combined with the ongoing issue of the Fort Rozz escapees and, of course, Earth’s reputation among the stars, and the Guardians were heavily considering whether to recruit more Green Lanterns from Earth to patrol this sector. Perhaps with enough Green Lanterns from Earth, there would be enough of them to _stop_ what had caused Earth’s bad reputation to begin with, something Hal dearly wished to do. Those Dominator bastards deserved all the hell they could be given. Hal had no use for slavers and the fact that someone on Earth was happily handing over their own people to the Dominators in exchange for Earth being left alone… it was _galling_ and infuriating all at the same time. **_*4*_**

Hal smiled as his display told him his ‘opponent’ in this war game had locked onto him. He began evasive maneuvers that only he could pull off, smug in the knowledge that the remote-controlled drone that served as his opponent couldn’t possibly outperform. Drones were nice, he supposed, but nothing beat a human being in terms of imagination. At least, nothing on Earth.

**_*DC*_ **

Clark Kent sighed as sat back at his desk in the _Daily Planet_. His new column was coming along nicely and was being well-received by the average reader of the _Planet_ , especially those living in Metropolis. He still tackled some hard-hitting issues such as the occasional cases of homophobia and Morgan Edge’s criminal enterprises, but he also did a lot of focus on what it meant to essentially be a sudden parent. He received many comments from others who had come to be in the same situation at one point or another and was heartened that so many found his thoughts to be meaningful to them. He had even heard privately from Oliver, telling him he understood that because of having to be a sudden parent to his son in the future and having to become his sister’s guardian in this new timeline.

Oliver. There was something Clark still didn’t know how he felt on. Oliver had been a good friend and had helped boost both his and Lois’ careers even further than they already were, and Clark _believed_ in what Oliver saw in his grand vision for the Justice League. But he also couldn’t help the niggling doubts that had appeared after learning about Kryptonite and Oliver fashioning weapons from it. Intellectually, Clark _understood_ Oliver’s reasoning. But Kryptonite was so painful just to be _near_ , and knowing Oliver had fashioned weapons that could be used to torture Kryptonians as well as kill them… it wasn’t something you could just ignore when you could be affected by it. Or, rather, could have been. Clark and Kelex had worked together to create a new suit, which Clark was now wearing, and had tested against Kryptonite. He was now immune from the radiation it sent out.

That in and of itself proved just how much Oliver trusted Clark, and in many ways showed why Clark should trust Oliver. Oliver could have kept this from him, could have hidden the reality of Kryptonite until he used it for the first time to kill one of Zod’s soldiers, and then said that all that mattered was the victory over Zod. But he hadn’t. He had been upfront with Clark, offered him the chance to protect himself against Kryptonite, _and_ provided Lois with a means of protecting herself.

“What’s going through your head?” Lois asked from her desk on the other side of the office.

“I’m just thinking about Oliver and Kryptonite,” Clark said.

“I can’t believe he was stockpiling that for weeks without telling you,” Lois said.

“What’s important is that he did tell me, and he offered me the chance to shield myself from it,” Clark said, coming to a decision. “I’m not saying I’m happy about it, but I’m shielded from it now, and Oliver’s made sure that you have a protection against Zod and his men. I know you won’t use that to hurt me or Kara.”

“I won’t,” Lois agreed. “But once this thing with Zod is over, I’m getting rid of that thing. I don’t want Kara using it in some kind of teen cutting thing.”

“Agreed,” Clark said. “That’s why I insisted you carry it with you everywhere, so she can’t sneak it out of your purse or something.”

“So, we’re forgiving Oliver?” Lois asked. “Because Laurel’s made some good points.”

“Yes,” Clark said. “We’re forgiving Oliver.” **_*5*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* In Season 3 of “The Flash”, Caitlin was still herself when she had her icy powers show up, even when she went full Killer Frost. She only developed a split personality in Season 4, after she had seen Amunet Black, who tricked her into thinking she had ‘cured’ her or whatever. Since it was actually a placebo, Caitlin herself is responsible for the split personality. But originally, there was none.
> 
> *2* Poor Laurel. She went through the physical ringer in Volume I and now she’s getting put through an emotional ringer in Volume II. Now, once he’s out of rehab, I do plan for Quentin to be proud of her. Terrified for her, but proud. But right now, she feels like no one except Sara might be proud of her and her choices. I feel bad for putting Laurel through the ringers like this, but I still say it’s more than the Arrow writers ever did for the character. And sadly, this kind of thing has to happen for character growth to occur. Hopefully Volume III will be nicer to Laurel and she won’t be put through any ringers.
> 
> *3* I hope everyone enjoyed the look into Diana’s life now that she’s moved to the U.S. Her working at the Met was a suggestion from Nyame. And I couldn’t help but follow up with some of the criminals who left Starling for Los Angeles and New York City. They just don’t have any luck at all…
> 
> *4* I’ll get further into this in Episode 18. Though if you’ve read my story “Seeds of Rebellion”, you might know what this is about.
> 
> *5* One of the things I hate about both “Smallville” and “Supergirl” is how they have Clark and Kara, respectively, completely overreact to the Kryptonite issue. Like, seriously, it does make it seem like they have a fucking god complex that they get so upset and judgmental over people wanting to protect the planet from evil Kryptonians, which there are an abundance of (which they well know). So, I’m not having my Clark be a fucking idiot.


	40. The Calm II

Bruce Wayne looked out across Gotham City from his office at Wayne Enterprises, expression contemplative. He was continuing to wrestle with the offer that Oliver Queen had made to him over two months ago. In most situations, he would have already told Oliver no and been done with it. But this wasn’t a case of most situations. There were issues at hand that had to be considered.

First, there was the sheer amount of power that the Justice League represented. Superman, Green Lantern, and Aquaman were all quite powerful, as shown to the world during the Battle of Amnesty Bay. Black Canary’s sonic scream was also quite powerful on its own, and from the sounds of it she was becoming quite the scrapper now that the criminals of Starling were no longer scared that she would kill them with her voice. Finally, Bruce was certain that Wonder Woman moving shop from Paris to New York City was a sign that Oliver had recruited her for his Justice League as well. Combined with Oliver’s deadly skillset and his devoting his considerable resources to arming and armoring his allies, and the Justice League represented a formidable force, a force that could become a serious threat if it ever decided to turn _against_ the nation which had seen it founded.

Second, Bruce still questioned whether he should join the Justice League just to be able to keep tabs on all of them. Someone had to keep these powerhouses in check, and he doubted the government was making contingencies in case the Justice League ever turned on them since the Justice League was essentially the president’s hopes for a lasting legacy beyond his administration’s treaty with Atlantis. But then he would ask himself what one man, especially one without powers, could do against these powerhouses when he didn’t even know their weaknesses beyond those which Superman had shared with the world in the _Daily Planet_. Bruce had been working on what he called a Red Sun Grenade, but it was slow work harnessing enough energy of that type to weaponize it, and so far, he didn’t have a working prototype.

Finally, there was the question of whether he should join the Justice League because it was the right thing to do for Gotham. Bruce knew in his heart that the kind of threats the Justice League was meant to face wouldn’t spare Gotham just because he was here; Amnesty Bay had proved there were threats beyond one’s imagining even just on this world. Who knew what sort of threats existed that the government kept hidden. For example, what if there were more aliens on Earth other than Superman, as the Man of Steel had hinted at in his interview with Lois Lane? What if there were more kingdoms under the sea than just the Trench and Xebel that would risk Atlantis’ wrath to attack a surface city near the water, as Gotham was? Bruce would be the first to admit that while he would fight such threats to his last breath because that is what Gotham deserved, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to turn back such threats all on his own, at least not until he learned the weaknesses of each and every enemy and designed weapons specifically designed to deal with them.

Bruce sighed wearily. The world was far more complicated now, and as much as Bruce wanted to lay the blame for that at Oliver Queen’s feet, he knew from his time in the League of Assassins that the world had always been strange and unusual. From the Lazarus Pit to the League’s archives detailing the existence of Atlantis in ages past, everything about that ancient society was steeped in esoteric mystery and mysticism. So, it didn’t surprise Bruce all that much that there were such things as aliens living amongst humanity.

What worried him was that all of the strange and unusual things had been stirred up because the President’s reaction to the Undertaking was to form the Justice League to combat such threats. Jim had once talked to him about escalation, about how he might draw out the crazier elements of society by being Batman. And Jim had been right, as his rise as Batman had also seen the rise of the likes of The Joker. So, the formation of the Justice League was inevitably going to see the rise of people and organizations that saw the Justice League as a threat or as something to challenge, and cities like Starling, Metropolis, and Gotham would become the battlegrounds.

But still, he held back from making that leap, from accepting Oliver’s offer. Jim was right in that he didn’t play well with others, at least, not as equals. When it came to his city, his word was law, as far as he was concerned, and both Dick and Barbara had chafed under that. He was trying a new tactic with Jason, being a little more patient, even indulgent, in the hopes that Jason would be able to understand that Bruce’s methods came from a place of concern, even if he didn’t express it as such. But the Justice League, by all accounts, was a gathering of equals. No one voice stood out, no one set of tactics was paramount. Instead, they planned together, worked together, and Bruce didn’t know if he would be able to do that. That wasn’t how he worked; he had always worked alone or with one or two partners, maximum. Working with a large team and having to adapt his tactics to suit the battles that the Justice League got involved in wasn’t something he thought he could do.

But did he really have a choice, what with the rumors he had heard from the streets of Gotham, rumors that Jason had reported to him? Rumors of men and women who changed their shape, whose red-tinted eyes gave them a demonic sort of look. Rumors of truly-demonic looking beings coming out of the Narrows, beings that controlled fire and burned anyone who saw them. Rumors of ‘werewolves’ who roamed in packs, tearing apart the unlucky homeless that they found. Bruce had been patrolling the city in these places more frequently since the rumors began, but so far, he had found no sign of anything beyond burnt or mangled corpses to suggest there was any truth to the rumors. Whoever or whatever these people were, science experiment gone wrong or perhaps even aliens, they were making victims out of the people that he had sworn to protect as Batman, and he couldn’t help but feel there was something more to this, something that didn’t fit the pattern of random violence. This felt _targeted_ somehow, like they were _testing_ the responses of both Batman and the G.C.P.D. If so, then he was sure that whatever was being planned, be it by humans or aliens, was going to happen soon.

“Troubled thoughts, Mr. Wayne?” Lucius Fox said as he entered the office, coming to a stop beside Bruce.

“Just considering all the factors,” Bruce said. “If what I think about these attacks is true, this may be a threat beyond even what I can deal with.” He sighed. “I may have to ask Oliver Queen for help.”

“Well, he does owe you for saving his girlfriend from the Bratva,” Lucius said.

“That was a joint operation, he owes me nothing,” Bruce said. “I just worry that I will lose who I am if I join the Justice League. Oliver, despite his claims when he made the offer a couple of months ago, has been increasingly drawn away from Starling City, leaving it in the hands of less-experienced vigilantes. I worry that I will be drawn away from Gotham more and more if I join the Justice League, that my mission will become diluted or obsolete.”

Lucius chuckled. “Mr. Wayne, there is nothing on Earth or in heaven or hell that could change who you are at your core or make your mission secondary to everything else. Mr. Queen is still _building_ the Justice League and so he does spend time away from Starling. But every time he is in Starling, he is out on patrol every night with Black Canary and Wild Dog, and when he had to be away for two weeks, he left a team behind to keep his city safe. Just as you would do if you were forced to be away from Gotham. You would ask Mr. Grayson and Miss Gordon to help Mr. Todd while you were at work. And Mr. Queen has many responsibilities as the leader of the Justice League. You would not have the same responsibilities unless he delegated some to you, and I suspect if you refused that he would accept that.”

“Perhaps you’re right, Lucius,” Bruce said. “I’ll consider what you’ve said carefully. Now, was there something that you needed?”

“No, I was passing by and noticed you seemed troubled,” Lucius said. “I merely felt the need to lend a friendly ear. Good day, Mr. Wayne.” Lucius left the office, and Bruce returned to gazing out across Gotham, weighing his options and wondering if there was really a choice for him in the matter of joining the Justice League. There were too many reasons to do so, and not enough to refuse the offer beyond his worries that Gotham would become secondary in his eyes the longer he was with the Justice League. But Lucius seemed to think that he wasn’t likely to fall into that trap. So, the question became, did he do it?

Did he join the Justice League? **_*1*_**

**_*DC*_ **

General Dru-Zod studied the projection that showed a map of Gotham City, the target of his ‘test’ against the Justice League. He had been sending his forces quietly into Gotham over the past three weeks, squads of shapeshifting Kevarans, pyrokinetic Dethmari, and Vrangs. They had been testing the reaction times for the humans’ law enforcement agencies as well as the city’s ‘Dark Knight’, the Batman and his subordinate, Robin. Thus far, Zod was unimpressed with both. The Gotham City Police Department were slow to respond to the rumors of their attacks, and the Batman was always the first on the scene, already too late to do anything but attempt to track the ones responsible. He had admittedly come close a couple of times in the beginning, when the Dethmari, Kevarans, and Vrangs had been sloppier in covering their tracks, but he had lost them whenever they slipped into the region of the city called ‘the Narrows’. It was as though something in that region interfered with his ability to detect their presence, and that was why their forward base of operations had been set up there. **_*2*_**

Zod turned to face his three lieutenants, Non, Faora, and Ursa, and studied them for a moment before making his decision. “Ursa, you will go to Gotham City and take command of our forces there. I wish for the attack to begin as evening descends this day. Rally your forces around this point,” he brought up a section of the map and highlighted it, “and maintain that position. Allow the news media of the humans to record your attacks for a time, to ensure the Justice League receives word of the attack. But once you are certain of the truth, have your forces kill each reporter to further spread fear. I do not care how they do it. But allow those recording to live and keep showing the battle. It will allow us to monitor the situation here.”

“It will be as you say, General,” Ursa said.

“Be mindful of the other members of the Justice League,” Zod said. “Kal-El is soft, weak, but the others proved in the Battle of Amnesty Bay that they are hardened warriors, even Black Canary. Your great strength and powers should see you victorious, but even so…” Ursa nodded and left the room. Zod turned back to the projection and returned it to its city overview.

“Do you think this battle will be won?” Non asked.

“This battle is a test of what the Justice League is capable of when facing a military strike rather than mindless monsters,” Zod replied. “If they fail to rebuff the attack, then we know that this world will fall to us. If they manage to repel the attack, send our forces scurrying back or killing them all, then we know that it will require our Kryptonian forces to wipe the Justice League from the face of the Earth. Ursa knows to return should our forces fail.”

“Of course, General Zod,” Non said. “I merely wondered at what outcome you expect.”

“I expect the Justice League will be forced to show more of their prowess to defeat our forces than they showed when facing the Trench in the Battle of Amnesty Bay,” Zod replied. “Whether they win or lose this battle, valuable knowledge will have been gained about our enemies, Commander Non.” Non bowed his head in acknowledgement.

**_*DC*_ **

Commander Ursa Dor-Van touched down outside of the base of operations that had been established in a warehouse in the Narrows of Gotham City. She entered the warehouse and found the assembled forces were in the middle of their own ‘training exercises’. Vrangs were tackling one another and snarling at each other. Kevarans were shapeshifting into species that had an armored hide. Dethmari were keeping their pyrokinetic abilities sharp and throwing fireballs against a stone wall, where they dissipated without anything to burn. The wall was black from all of the scorch marks. When the Dethmari, Kevarans, and Vrangs noticed her, they straightened noticeably, and she smirked coldly. On Krypton, these races would have overpowered her kind easily enough (the Vrangs in particular had conquered Krypton at one point), but here, on this world, they were the supreme being in the universe, and these races capitulated to the will of their rightful masters.

“The time for waiting is over,” Ursa announced into the silence that had fallen. “Tonight, we make this city ours and turn back the Justice League.” She was certain of the victory. No humans, no matter how powerful or quick-minded, could hope to stand against the might that was a Kryptonian soldier, and Kal-El was, as General Zod had pointed out, weak and soft in his willingness to make the hard choices that would be needed. No, the ones to be concerned about, albeit barely, were the empowered humans and the Atlantean. The so-called leader of the Justice League, Oliver Queen? She would crush his skull beneath her boot. A powerless human was no match for her.

**_*DC*_ **

When Oliver Queen entered Lance Floral, he immediately sensed something off about his girlfriend when she greeted him with a bright smile. It was that too-bright smile she used when she was hiding her pain. “What’s going on, Laurel?” he asked as he set the bags of Thai food on the counter between them.

Laurel deflated. “Am I that obvious?” she asked.

“Laurel, you wear your heart on your sleeve, and I love you for it,” Oliver said. “Now, what’s going on?”

“My mother stopped by earlier,” Laurel said. “She wanted to know if Sara had told me where she was going. I said she hadn’t, since it’s technically true. I knew where Sara was going, so she didn’t have to tell me. I guess I’m getting better at lying with the truth since Dinah believed me.” Oliver winced at Laurel referring to her mother by her first name. “She then thought she had the right to try and talk to me about my being disbarred and choosing vigilantism over my law career. She referred to what I do now as running around in a costume and screaming at people.”

“Well, you know that’s not true,” Oliver said, cupping her chin in one hand and lifting her head so their eyes met. “You and I both know that Black Canary is a hero who has already saved thousands of lives. Without you, Amnesty Bay might’ve been overrun by the Trench, and I would be dead. And you have saved so many people while on patrol since you started going out as Black Canary here. You do a hell of a lot more than run around in a costume and scream at people. So, what is really going through your head that has you trying to hide your pain with that too-bright smile?”

Laurel looked down. “It’s just… if Dinah knew what Sara was doing, she would be proud of her,” Laurel said. “But she can’t ever muster up the same feelings for me that she has for Sara. Why is it that my parents can’t love me for being who I am, and can only love me when I’m their ‘perfect daughter’, the one who gets straight A’s and settles for a 9-5 job and never does anything that she truly wants to do because it doesn’t fit with the image of the perfect Dinah Laurel Lance that they have built up in their heads? Why can’t my family be proud of me for being me, Ollie?”

“Sara’s proud of you for being you,” Oliver pointed out.

“Yeah, but Sara’s always been wild,” Laurel said with a sad smile. “I want my parents to be proud of me, Ollie, despite how strained things are between us. But Dad thinks I’m a freak and just the Justice League’s ‘pet female representation’, and Dinah… like I said, she can’t muster up the same feelings of love and pride for me that she musters up for Sara.”

“Laurel, you and I both have had to deal with disapproving parents,” Oliver said, taking her hands in his and squeezing them gently before bringing them up and brushing his lips over her knuckles. “You are beautiful, inside and out, and you are compassionate, and strong, and willful, and the very best partner I could ask for in this life. Our parents may not approve of the people we’ve become, which is why we need to learn to let go of our need for their acceptance and learn to love ourselves. That’s a lesson that it took me a long time to learn. Two lifetimes, in fact.” He smiled wryly, and Laurel gave a low, throaty chuckle in appreciation for what Oliver had said. “You need to let go of needing Dinah and Quentin to approve of who you are. What matters is that _you_ love who you are and what you’ve become. And for what it’s worth, I think that Quentin will regret what he called you in his drunken haze when he finally gets out of rehab, and he’s going to be groveling for your forgiveness.”

“Thanks, Ollie,” Laurel said. “I’ll try to think on what you’ve said. I know I _should_ only be concerned with loving myself, but it’s always been me wanting to be myself and be loved for it. It’s going to be hard to turn that off.”

“I understand that,” Oliver said. “Just know I am going to be here with you _every step_ of the way. I love you, Dinah Laurel Lance.”

“I love you, too, Ollie,” Laurel said. “Now, we should probably eat this Thai food before it gets cold.”

“Very true,” Oliver said with a chuckle, and they began divvying up containers, talking about their day so far.

**_*DC*_ **

Quentin Lance sat in a chair in the therapist’s office at the rehab center he had been checked into, his expression downcast as his mind kept circling back to one image. “Quentin?” the therapist asked. “Is there something troubling you?”

“Yeah,” Quentin said with a sigh. “I keep thinking about my last day at the precinct before Frank forced the issue. I mean, I think about a lot of the things I’d done in the weeks leading up to it, but the thing that jumps out at me is what I said to my daughter. I told my little girl that she was a freak, that she was just pet female representation for the Justice League. I was drunk, and I was looking to hurt her, and I just keep seeing her face twist in shock and dismay at my words, see the hurt flash through her eyes. My daughter has the most expressive eyes, doc, and what I saw in her eyes that day… it tears me up inside now, knowing I put her through that kind of torture and yet I can’t just ignore what she’s become, what she’s done. Vigilantism is just one step closer to anarchy, I’ve always believed that. And to have not one but _both_ of my daughters turn to it… I don’t see where I went wrong, doc.” **_*3*_**

“Your daughters are their own people, Quentin,” the therapist said. “It’s not a matter of you or your wife ‘going wrong’ in how you raised them. They are now adults leading their own lives, and some of their choices are inevitably going to go against how they were raised as they establish their own moral code by which they’ll live their lives. Your daughters are admittedly unique in that they use that moral code as a guidebook for how they conduct themselves in taking down criminals. And it sounds to me, based on what you’ve said, that Laurel is a bit of a late bloomer when it comes to doing this. From the sounds of it, she lived by _your_ moral code for a long time, because it was all that she had ever known. It was inevitable that she would eventually chafe under it and wish to establish her own moral code, just as Sara and Oliver have.”

“Don’t mention that bastard’s name!” Quentin immediately snapped. “He’s the reason for all of this! He’s the reason my oldest is throwing away everything and why my youngest became what she did! Sara would’ve been a doctor or something if she hadn’t gotten on that boat with Queen! He’s the reason everything has changed!”

“Oliver Queen doesn’t have the power to change the very fabric of reality, Quentin,” the therapist said soothingly. “The truth is that these strange and unusual things existed even without Oliver Queen exposing them. You are not my only patient who is struggling with the changes to the world we live in. They are rapid and near-constant, and people are struggling with the shifting reality the world over. But you cannot blame one man who has no superpowers for this. And if you feel you can, perhaps your ire would be better aimed at Malcolm Merlyn. Without him trying to kill Robert Queen, Oliver and Sara would not have become the people who caused Laurel’s perceptions to shift. But you won’t, because you need a living target to vent your anger at and since you cannot condemn your own daughters, you must blame Oliver Queen. So long as you feel this way, Quentin, you will not be cleared to leave this facility, and you won’t be able to lie about how you feel about Oliver Queen. You cannot blame Oliver Queen _or_ your daughters for who they’ve become. You can only accept or reject who they’ve become.”

Quentin remained silent for the rest of the session, refusing to engage with the therapist, who as far as he was concerned was trying to promote Oliver Queen’s heroism. Unsurprising, since it was Queen who had gotten him into this top-rate rehab facility.

**_*DC*_ **

The attack came as evening descended. Fires erupted in the Narrows, and when fire crews arrived on the scene to put them out, they were attacked by Dethmari, who burned them to ashes; by Kevarans, who shapeshifted into vicious alien animals and tore them to shreds; and by Vrangs, who ripped their throats out with their teeth, bathing themselves in human blood. One firefighter managed to get a distress call out over the emergency band before he was torn apart by the Kevarans. Watching all of this from a rooftop was Ursa, who ordered her small army to leave the Narrows and head for the intersection that Zod had designated for them to face the Justice League in. Ursa had visited the area earlier and noted it had what humans called CCTV there as well as being near one of the news outlet headquarters. It was a prime position from which to issue their challenge to the Justice League.

Batman exited his lair beneath Wayne Enterprises aboard the Batcycle, following Lucius’ directions as he raced towards the source of the attack ahead of the G.C.P.D. All he could think of as he closed the distance between himself and the alien army was that now he wished he had already made his decision. He could have called on the Justice League right away. Now, because of his pride and stubbornness, innocent people were going to die while the Justice League mobilized, and it was _his_ fault. **_*4*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* I hope this segment got Bruce’s turmoil over whether or not to join the Justice League across and that it wasn’t *too* heavy-handed if it did.
> 
> *2* Vrangs are a comics-canon alien species. Kevarans and Dethmari are OC races that I created for an original space opera story I was writing once.
> 
> *3* So, one thing I’ve noticed with Katie Cassidy is how often she expresses herself with her eyes. She’s really good at doing that in her roles, and I wanted to bring that up in-universe. But Quentin still believes vigilantism is wrong, as per 2046!Laurel.
> 
> *4* Batman has always struck me as someone who takes the burden of the world upon him, so that’s how I’m writing him here.


	41. The Battle of Gotham

Oliver Queen was sitting at the counter with Laurel and Thea, the latter doing her homework, when the cell phone Oliver had been given for contact with the president rang. Oliver picked it up as Laurel and Thea’s conversation died, Laurel straightening, knowing that that phone only rang when there was an emergency that the president believed the Justice League needed to handle. Oliver picked up the phone, slid the green icon upward to accept the call, and put the phone to his ear with a, “Mr. President.”

“Mr. Queen, I assume from your calm response you don’t know what’s happening,” President Trumbull said on the other end of the line. “Turn on the television. There’s a situation in Gotham.” Oliver walked to the coffee table and turned on the television, which was set to Channel 52 News. Instantly, he saw what the president was talking about. There were aliens on the march in the streets of Gotham, terrorizing the people with shapeshifting powers, throwing fireballs, and mauling people with claws and fangs. Laurel shivered at the sight of the ‘werewolves’, reminded once again of the Huntsman and now the Trenchers, but focused her mind, knowing she was going to be called to fight these things. “Mr. Queen, this attack is what your team is meant to counter. Get to Gotham City as soon as possible.”

“We will, Mr. President,” Oliver said. “We’ll protect Gotham.” Oliver hung up without another word, knowing that was enough, and sent a text to Hal and Clark asking them to come to Starling to help Laurel and he get to Gotham. He sent another text to Diana, asking her where they could pick her up and explaining the situation. Finally, he went to the counter, where he kept the beacon that Arthur had given him and activated it. Then he went to Thea and pulled her into a hug, kissing her forehead. “We’ll be fine, Speedy. Don’t watch.”

“You know I can’t do that, Ollie, not when both of you are going to be in danger,” Thea said tremulously. “Best I can do is watch it with Henry and Roy at the Quiver.”

“Alright,” Oliver said. “Let’s go.” Oliver, Laurel, and Thea all grabbed their coats and left the loft, locking it behind them. A few minutes later, they were on their way to the Glades. Oliver received answering texts back from Hal and Clark, saying they would meet Oliver, Laurel, and Arthur at the marina of Starling City (where the _Gambit_ had set sail from). Oliver also received a text from Diana saying they could find her on the Empire State Building, though she could fly under her own power. Oliver wasn’t phased at _that_ little revelation about Diana’s powers. That made three Justice League members who had the power of flight. **_*1*_**

Oliver made it to the Quiver in record time, pulling into the underground garage and exiting the vehicle. He, Laurel, and Thea entered the Quiver to find Henry already getting every feed he could from Gotham, news or CCTV, in anticipation of Oliver’s arrival. “Good work, Henry,” Oliver praised as he moved towards the mannequin his uniform was mounted on, Laurel’s on a mannequin beside his. Both he and Laurel gathered their uniforms and went into the facilities to change, exiting minutes later. “What’s it looking like on the ground in Gotham?” Oliver asked.

“Lot of aliens, but only one of them is Kryptonian, the leader,” Henry replied. “A woman, short dark hair, black uniform.”

“Got it,” Oliver said, and moved to stock his quiver, grabbing a Kryptonite arrow in lead casing and putting it in after a moment of hesitation. He would just have to hope Clark had gotten himself shielded from Kryptonite radiation, because there was no way Oliver was risking potentially countless lives by letting the Kryptonian walk away to fight them again. Oliver retrieved a box of comm devices he had had specially designed for this situation, six in all. They would provide the Justice League with the means to communicate with one another. Oliver hesitated a moment, then took one of the Kryptonite daggers and held it out to Laurel, who took it reluctantly. “We have no idea what the situation on the ground is going to be by the time we get there,” Oliver said. “I want you armed in case that Kryptonian comes after you.” Laurel sighed and gave a short nod to show she understood. “Let’s get to the docks.”

Ten minutes later, Green Arrow and Black Canary arrived at the marina to find Aquaman, Green Lantern, and Superman waiting for them. “We need to head to New York, pick up Wonder Woman at the Empire State Building,” Green Arrow said, “and once we’re in Gotham, we get the latest reports from Commissioner Gordon. He should be coordinating whatever resistance the G.C.P.D. can muster from their headquarters in downtown Gotham.”

“Sounds good,” Superman said. “I have to ask… do you have one of _those_ arrows?”

“I do,” Green Arrow said. “Did you solve the radiation issue?”

“Yes, I did,” Superman replied. “I hope you won’t use that unless absolutely necessary. I may accept the need for it, but you should give the Kryptonian leading the attack the chance to stand down, surrender.”

“I’ll give them _one_ chance to do that, the chance you give them,” Green Arrow said. “After they refuse your generous offer, we do it my way.” Superman grimaced while Green Lantern looked uncomfortable. Green Arrow had told him about the Kryptonite and what Superman had compared it to. He understood Superman’s distaste for such methods (he himself was essentially a space cop, after all), but he also understood that this was a war, whether any of them liked it or not, and at the end of the day, Oliver Queen was their general and he was having to match wits with a master of war from another planet. He needed every advantage that he could get, especially when he was so spectacularly outclassed. “Green Lantern, can you make three of those bubbles to transport Aquaman, Black Canary, and I?”

“I can,” Green Lantern replied and raised his ring, concentrating. The same kind of bubble as Green Lantern had formed around Black Canary back at Amnesty Bay formed around the three heroes incapable of flight, and soon they were off at high speeds, heading for New York City.

The five heroes arrived at the Empire State Building twenty minutes after leaving Starling City and Wonder Woman rose into the air to join them. “Next stop, G.C.P.D. headquarters,” Green Arrow said firmly, and the now-six heroes were off, heading northward towards Gotham City. It took them five minutes traveling at high speeds, and they angled their descent, coming down on the rooftop of G.C.P.D. headquarters, where Commissioner James Gordon and some of his men were gathered around the Bat Signal. Gordon blinked in shock as the six heroes came in for a landing. “Commissioner Gordon, good to see you again,” Green Arrow said with a nod. “What’s the latest?”

“They’ve cordoned off an intersection downtown,” Gordon replied, gesturing towards where smoke could be seen rising into the air. “We have unconfirmed reports Batman was spotted heading into the city to head them off, but our CCTV in the area is down. All we’re getting is what the news is being _allowed_ to show, which isn’t very much since they killed all the reporters. We _watched_ as Vicky Vale was torn apart by those werewolf things.” Black Canary grimaced at the mention of a reporter being torn apart by those things.

“Vrangs,” Superman said calmly. “Not the smartest species, but cruel and sadistic.”

“And the shapeshifters and firestarters?” Gordon asked.

“Kevarans, the shapeshifters, have a weakness against both electricity and fire, which I’m guessing means they’ve got the Vrangs between them and the Dethmari, the firestarters,” Superman said. “As one can guess, the Dethmari are weak to water.”

“Then I shall deal with them,” Aquaman said firmly. “I can control any source of water, even that from sewers.” Superman nodded.

“I shall handle those that Aquaman does not,” Wonder Woman said.

“I get the feeling Vrangs are the weakest of the three species,” Green Arrow said grimly. “Black Canary and I will handle those.”

“Oh, good,” Black Canary said sarcastically. “I haven’t been threatened by things that want to eat me in a few weeks. Need to fill that quota.”

“Sorry,” Green Arrow said with a grimace. “I just don’t think my arrows, or your Cry, will be much help against shapeshifters.”

“No, you’re right,” Black Canary said with a sigh. “Besides, if they’re anything like canines from Earth, they’ll be vulnerable to certain pitches.”

“They are,” Superman confirmed. “That leaves the Kevarans for Green Lantern and I.”

“You should know there are six streets leading into the intersection and they’ve got units guarding each street,” Gordon said, gesturing the Justice League over to the table. “We were hoping the rumors that Batman was already trying to stop this were just that, but he hasn’t shown. We can only assume he’s in the center of all this… if they haven’t killed him.” Gordon gestured to the city map and the circled intersection. He began pointing to it. “The Kevarans are here and here. The Dethmari are here and here. And the Vrangs are here and here.”

“You were right, Vrangs are in the middle, between the Dethmari and Kevarans,” Green Arrow said to Superman. “What about the Kryptonian?”

“Right smack dab in the center of the intersection,” Gordon said, “like a damn spider in her web.”

“Sir, we’re getting a new live feed from the intersection,” one of the officers said. “You’re gonna want to see this. All of you,” he added, looking at the Justice League. He set the laptop that he was carrying down on the table where the map of Gotham was and the Justice League and Gordon both looked down at the screen. The Kryptonian was standing atop a ‘monument’ of wrecked and flaming cars and pinned to the hood of one of the cars by her boot was Batman.

“Well, he’s still alive,” Green Arrow said. “That’s something.” Gordon nodded grimly. “I get the feeling this Kryptonian is of the ‘boast proudly of their invincibility’ variety,” Green Arrow added dryly, looking over at Superman, who grimaced, knowing if that was true that the woman wouldn’t stand down. “Well, we’re not saving any lives standing on this rooftop. Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, you’ll need to drop Aquaman, Black Canary, and I at our assigned streets before you head to your own.” The three heroes capable of independent flight nodded. “Before we go, there’s this.” Green Arrow pulled out the container of comm devices and opened it. “Oversight will talk us through what we’re facing.” The six heroes all picked up a comm device and put it in their ear, activating it.

“I have something for each of you, as well,” Superman said, reaching under his cape and pulling a pouch out. He opened it and emptied it onto the table, over the map in Gotham. “These are Phantom Zone projectors. They’ll allow you to send the enemies you face back to the Phantom Zone, where you belong.”

“Good,” Green Arrow said. “That will negate the potential of these beings waking up and causing more havoc after we subdue them.”

Once that was done, Green Lantern wrapped Aquaman in another bubble, Superman pulled Green Arrow into his side, and Wonder Woman looped an arm beneath Black Canary’s arms while Black Canary looped an arm around the older woman’s shoulders. The heroes lifted off from the roof of G.C.P.D. headquarters and headed towards the plume of smoke, separating as they drew nearer. “Wait until we’re all in position,” Green Arrow said over the comms. “Then we attack simultaneously. If you make it to the intersection before the others, _do not engage the Kryptonian_. Wait for the rest of the League.”

“Roger that,” Green Lantern said.

“Understood,” Superman sighed.

“Acknowledged,” Aquaman said.

“Very well,” Wonder Woman said.

“You got it,” Black Canary said.

Superman set down at the start of the street where one of the packs of Vrangs was running amok. “Good luck,” he told Green Arrow.

“Thanks,” the Emerald Archer said, and Superman drifted upward, flying off to his own designated street. “This is Green Arrow. I am in position.”

“Black Canary in position,” the heroine said a minute later.

“Aquaman, also in position.”

“Superman in position,” the Man of Steel said.

“Green Lantern in position,” the space cop said.

“Wonder Woman in position,” the Amazonian princess said.

“Attack,” Green Arrow said simply, and so the Battle of Gotham began.

**_*DC*_ **

“I fucking hate things that want to eat me,” Black Canary complained over the comms as she approached the Vrangs, who were menacing a group of survivors. “Going off comms for a minute to give these things an earful.” She tapped her comms and then unleashed a high-pitched Canary Cry at the Vrangs, who howled in unison and turned to face her, bounding forward. Black Canary reached behind her and snapped her bo staff into place with a twist of her wrist, staring the Vrangs down grimly. She raced forward, dodging claws and delivering a blow to one Vrang’s jaw with her bo staff, sending the alien werewolf spinning. She delivered a kick to the gut of one of the Vrangs and then unleashed another Canary Cry, changing her pitch this time, trying to find the right frequency.

The Vrangs were enraged by the second attack on their sensitive hearing and one lashed out. Black Canary leaned back, the Vrang’s claws barely missing her exposed throat. _Next variation of the suit gets a collar,_ she thought to herself before delivering a strike with her bo staff against the Vrang’s own throat, which caused the creature to choke. She spun in place, striking each Vrang in striking distance alongside the head, then dived through them, rolling forward and coming up a good three feet away from the Vrangs. She unleashed another Canary Cry, focusing on raising the pitch even higher, and _this_ got the reaction she was looking for. The Vrangs cowered in front of her, paws going to their ears as they howled agonizingly in unison.

Black Canary gave them no quarter, unleashing swift and crippling blows with her bo staff, ending with strikes to the base of their skulls, knocking them out. She then pulled out the Phantom Zone projector that Superman had given her on the roof of the G.C.P.D. headquarters and used it to send the Vrangs back to their eternal prison. She turned and leaped up on one of the cars, looking at the people who had been cowering and noting one of them had a cell phone aimed at her. “You’re safe now, but you shouldn’t stay here. I’ll try to keep these things from getting passed me, but there’s always a chance.”

“Thank you,” one man said, and pulled a woman who had been clutching onto him in the direction of the police roadblock that could be seen a couple of blocks ahead. The others who had been being menaced by the Vrangs also followed, even the one who had been filming her fight with the Vrangs, which Black Canary was glad for. She didn’t want to have to worry about keeping some amateur vid-blogger or something safe while she fought the Vrangs.

Black Canary leapt down from the car and landed in a crouch before rising and heading down the street, a wistful expression on her face. Gotham. She had lived here until she was eight years old, while her mother finished getting her doctorate, and then they had moved to Starling City. She barely remembered the city. Still, this was her hometown these things were wrecking, and she wouldn’t say she didn’t have a soft spot for Gotham, because she did. Starling and it’s people were the most important thing in her eyes now, but she was glad the city she was native to had someone like Batman to protect them.

She activated her comms again to report in. “First pack of Vrangs suitably cowed and sent back to their little prison,” she said.

Black Canary spotted the next pack of Vrangs ahead of her and steeled herself even as she got ready to turn off her comms again. She hated these damn things, like she hated anything that decided she was food and nothing more, and she was going to enjoy sending them back to their eternal hell.

**_*DC*_ **

Aquaman moved forward with a self-assurance that came with being the King of Atlantis, trident in hand and gleaming golden in the firelight as he approached the first unit of Dethmari. “I give you this one chance, as one honorable warrior to another,” Aquaman said. “Stand down and surrender to judgment, and you will not be harmed.” His answer was having to dodge a fireball thrown at him. “The hard way, then,” he acknowledged and focused on the water beneath the streets, spotting a fire hydrant nearby. He grinned wolfishly; that would do nicely. She dodged more fireballs as he moved towards the hydrant before he lashed out with the tail end of his trident, cutting the simple iron of the hydrant with ease.

Water burst forth from the fire hydrant, and Aquaman directed it with the powers imbued in his trident, soaking each and every Dethmari in range, earning dismayed screams from them as their connection to their innate Firestarter abilities was removed. Aquaman pulled out the Phantom Zone projector and fired it at the Dethmari, one at a time, until they were all gone. He moved forward, down the street, heading for the next grouping of Dethmari as water poured out onto the street behind him, water he could use as a weapon for as long as it flowed. “First group of Dethmari dealt with,” Aquaman reported in.

**_*DC*_ **

Superman floated inches above the street as he moved down in, grimacing at the smashed cars with blood pooling below what remains of the doors, indicating that the cars’ owners had been trapped inside when the Keverans attacked. So much death and destruction already, all for the ego of one man, General Zod. Superman wished he could have ended it the night Zod came to him in his apartment, but Zod had had superior fighting skills. Superman now realized that if was going to beat Zod, if he was going to beat him at all, it was going to need to be a battle of their mastery of their powers, which was where Superman had the advantage. He also knew that in that kind of battle, he wouldn’t be able to hold back. He would need to throw everything he had at Zod.

Ahead, the Kevarans had noticed the Kryptonian approaching and frozen in place. Superman tilted his head. “You have a choice,” he said simply. “You can either be sent back to the Phantom Zone or be beaten down until you submit to being sent back to the Phantom Zone. I would rather not have to harm you, but I will for what you’ve done here.” The Kevarans were currently in the form of Vidonian Rock Beasts, creatures with stone-like hide and a massive temper. Kevarans were often influenced by their chosen ‘morph’, so it was with a sense of resignation that Superman watched the Kevarans lumber forward, arms raised threateningly.

Superman darted forward, cape fluttering behind him, and delivered an uppercut to the closest Kevaran, sending the morphed alien collapsing backward, dazed. Superman moved on, kicking the ‘knee’ of one of the Kevarans and bending it’s leg backwards, earning a roar of pain from the morphed alien before Superman delivered a right hook across it’s jaw, knocking it out. He delivered an aerial spinning kick to the next Kevaran, striking him on the side of the head and knocking it out cold. Superman outright head-butted the final Kevaran in this particular pack, leaving all of them knocked out or dazed. He pulled out the Phantom Zone projector and aimed at each one, sending them back to the Phantom Zone. “First group of Kevarans sent packing,” he reported in. Then he moved on, noting the next group were morphed into Warsonan Crunchers, and the most likely culprits behind the smashed cars that had led to so many deaths. **_*2*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Wonder Woman, sword unsheathed and held at the ready, raised her shield and blocked the fireball that came her way, which dissipated against her shield. She raced forward and then ducked, sliding behind on of the Dethmari as she slashed her blade at his lower legs, the blessed blade cutting through tendons and bringing the alien menace down. She rose to her feet and slashed her sword diagonally across the chest of another Dethmari, causing crimson blood to spurt and fall on the ground, as the Dethmari fell back. Wonder Woman didn’t hesitate, shield-bashing the closest Dethmari in the face, stunning him, and then delivering a quick stroke of her sword across his throat. He collapsed, blood spurting from between his fingers and from his mouth as he tried to breathe through a severed throat.

Wonder Woman blocked another fireball and then leaped the distance between her and the Dethmari who had thrown it, shield-bashing him one, two, three times in the face, sending him sprawling to the ground. Sensing danger, she whirled and blocked a potent fireball thrown by a female Dethmari, who snarled in rage at her. Wonder Woman ignored the being’s fury and raced forward, leaping over the Dethmari woman at the last possible second and coming down behind her, where she once again severed the tendons in the legs, causing the woman to collapse. Each Dethmari in this first unit was now down, and Wonder Woman used the Phantom Zone projector to send each of them back to where they belonged. “My first group of Dethmari have been returned to their prison,” she reported in, before turning and moving on, focusing on the next group with a grim expression on her face, leaving behind the body of the Dethmari she had slain.

**_*DC*_ **

Green Lantern hovered in the air, moving forward as he focused on the first group of Kevarans. They were currently morphed into Fagian Crystal Wolves and were menacing a group of survivors that they had cornered. Green Lantern formed a minigun with his powers and opened fire, the energy slugs pounding into the morphed Kevarans and sending them yipping in retreat. Green Lantern didn’t let up, the energy slugs continuing to strike hard and fast until the Kevarans were barely limping away. Green Lantern pulled the projector from where it hung on a belt he had formed to keep it on him and opened fire with it, striking each Kevaran with the energy it emitted and sending them back to the Phantom Zone. This was, after all, why he had been tasked with coming to Earth, to return the prisoners to the Phantom Zone or arrange for transport to a suitable prison either on Earth or elsewhere in the universe.

Green Lantern turned his attention to the survivors. “You’re safe now,” he said. “Get moving. There’s a police blockade two blocks away. I’ll keep these things off your backs.”

“Thank you,” one woman said in a quavering voice, gathering her two children close to her and ushering them onward without another word. The three men who had been trying to hold off the morphed Kevarans with makeshift weapons such as crowbars and bats followed after them, keeping a wary eye out.

Green Lantern watched them go, then turned to face the next group of Kevarans, which had lumbered forward in Vidonian Rock Beast morphs. “Best part of the job,” he mused as he formed a giant mallet with his ring. **_*3*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Green Arrow fired an arrow, catching one of the Vrangs in the chest. He had stocked his quiver, aside from the Kryptonite arrow, with regular arrows and explosive arrows. He nocked and fired arrow after arrow, putting the Vrangs down, the creatures howling in pain as he pulled out the extrapolator and sent them back to hell, which is what the Phantom Zone sounded like to him. An eternity of misery, even if you weren’t aware, sounded like an awful punishment, though he supposed those who had been locked away in the Phantom Zone were deserving of it. While Superman had said his people were xenophobic in some way, Geen Arrow couldn’t help but wonder if they were xenophobic enough that they would send someone to the Phantom Zone for the equivalent of jaywalking. Something to ask Superman when all of this was over.

Green Arrow moved down the street, striking from a distance and then sending the Vrangs back to the Phantom Zone once they were down, listening to reports from the other members of the Justice League and reporting his own successes in turn. He was very happy with the new quiver he had courtesy of Q-Core, since it ensured he didn’t run out of arrows before he reached the intersection where the Kryptonian woman continued to keep Batman pinned. The other members of the Justice League arrived at roughly the same time as Green Arrow, and they encircled the ‘monument’ of wrecked cars.

“You managed to take them all down,” the Kryptonian woman said. “Impressive, but your methods are telling. There were very few deaths amongst all of your tactics. A flawed method when facing an army. That is why you will lose in the end.”

“Got a name to go with that ego?” Green Arrow asked.

“I am Commander Ursa,” said the Kryptonian woman.

“Ursa, please, just surrender,” Superman said. “You’re outnumbered, and you don’t know _everything_ about this world. There are things that can hurt our kind, weaken us down to human levels or below.”

“Yes, you were quite open with our kind’s weaknesses,” Ursa said, “a foolish choice to make, trusting these vermin. They are insects, Kal-El, and your choice to side with them over your own kind simply reveals how poisoned your mind is. I will not surrender. None of you have the willingness to do all that is necessary, and that is the conviction you will need if you are to even come close to defeating me. But your valuing the lives of your enemies proves that you lack such conviction.”

“Conviction,” Green Arrow mused. “You’re not the first person to claim I lacked the conviction to do all that is necessary, Ursa. I stabbed that person through the heart before cutting off his fucking head. I was taught that there are people in this world, in this _universe_ , that deal only in extremes, and it is naïve to believe anything less than extreme measures will stop them. People like you, like Zod? You’re the reason people like me exist.” Green Arrow drew his Kryptonite arrow.

Ursa smirked. “You think your little esoteric weapon can harm me?” she gloated. “I am a god on this world, Oliver Queen, and when you fail to kill me, I will crush this man’s chest, and then I will crush every last one of you, saving you for last, and I will crush your skull beneath my boot.”

Green Arrow said nothing, simply nocked and fired the Kryptonite arrow. The latches on the lead shielding unlocked, and a moment later, the Kryptonite arrow was lodged in Ursa’s chest, piercing her heart. Ursa grunted, stumbling backward, and Batman rolled away from her, landing in a crouch before standing and moving back to stand beside the Justice League as Green Arrow said, “If you’re a ‘god’, I guess that makes me the ‘god-killer’.” Wonder Woman shot him an amused look that he didn’t see and briefly wondered what her half-brother Ares would think of such a claim.

“How- Not possible,” Ursa choked out as she collapsed to her knees, her veins glowing green beneath her skin and she struggled in vain to pull the arrow out of her chest. Superman turned his head away, unable to stand the sight. He knew it was necessary, but he still thought that Kryptonite was unnecessarily cruel as a weapon against his kind and he would never be completely comfortable with Oliver having it. “This. Cannot. Be,” Ursa ground out.

“It can and it _is_ happening,” Green Arrow replied, stooping down and picking up the halves of the lead shielding. “Even _gods_ can die, Ursa. Your kind aren’t gods, no matter how many powers you have, no matter how invulnerable you think you are. I have an entire arsenal ready to lay out the rest of your army beside you, and I will. As far as I’m concerned, the only Kryptonians who aren’t a threat to mankind are Superman and his cousin. The rest of you? You’re a threat, the kind of threat I was made to fight.”

Ursa collapsed backward, her eyes glazing over in death. Green Arrow mounted the monument of wrecked cars and pulled the Kryptonite arrow from her body, clasping the lead shielding back into place and replacing the arrow in his quiver as he dropped back down to the ground and approached Batman. “This is the kind of battle the Justice League is meant to fight, and now you know these people won’t leave your city be just because you’re not involved,” Green Arrow said. “You tried to fight them on your own. You couldn’t. Because this is not a threat any one man or woman can face on their own. Now, you know what we’re about.”

“ ** _And I have an answer for you,_** ” Batman replied. “ ** _I had already decided I was going to answer this way before this attack. I will join you. For Gotham’s sake, if nothing else._** ”

“Welcome to the team,” Green Arrow said. “Now, we have a city in chaos. Would you like some help putting things to right?”

“ ** _I would,_** ” Batman said grudgingly.

“Alright, people, we have a city in chaos, and there’s going to be all manner of criminals out and about causing havoc,” Green Arrow said. “Since this is Batman’s city, his criminals, we follow his rules. No killing. Not even The Joker.” Batman gave Green Arrow a flat look, remembering the latter’s comment at the C.N.R.I. charity gala about The Joker and how the blood of every person The Joker killed from his second escape onward was also on Batman’s hands.

Black Canary and Wonder Woman joined together and headed off in one direction, Superman and Aquaman in another. Green Lantern looked at Green Arrow. “Guess that means Big Blue isn’t too happy with what you just did,” he said.

“I’m not surprised,” Green Arrow said. “He and Batman are remarkably similar in some ways.” Batman ignored the dig and got onto the Batcycle, driving off into the night. “Let’s go, people need our help.” **_*4*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* While I am mainly using the DCEU background for Diana in this story, I am making one change, and that’s giving her the power to fly, a power she has in some canons.
> 
> *2* Like the Kevarans, Vidonian Rock Beasts and Warsonan Crunchers are my own creation, specifically for this story since when I was writing original projects I didn’t think much on creating fictional flora and fauna.
> 
> *3* Fagian Crystal Wolves are likewise an original creation for this story.
> 
> *4* And so the Justice League is complete.


	42. Aftermath II

General Dru-Zod was in a contemplative mood after the feeds were cut. Ursa’s death was unexpected, as there had been no sign of weaponry designed to deal with Kryptonians as of yet from Earth’s military or their private sector, including Oliver Queen’s company or LuthorCorp, which had extensive military and government contracts. But now, it seemed, red solar weapons were not the only threat to their kind. There was something on this miserable little planet that could penetrate their invulnerability, poison them, _kill them_ , and Oliver Queen claimed to have an entire arsenal of this substance and a willingness to use it. That made Queen and his team the singularly greatest threat to Kryptonian dominance. It also meant that when they went to battle against the Justice League, they were no longer assured no casualties as Zod had believed would be the case.

The small, irrational part of Zod that was furious at one of his soldiers being cut down wanted to fly to Starling City as soon as the news reported Queen was back home and deal with this problem right away. But no, that wouldn’t work. He needed to study Queen, get insight into what made the man tick. He would deploy his agents in civilian garb to Starling City to watch Queen from afar and gain insight into the man. Once he had that, once he knew what kind of man he was dealing with, then he would confront Queen. Not before.

**_*DC*_ **

Director Sam Lane of the D.E.O. studied the footage from the confrontation between the Justice League and the Kryptonian named Ursa again. The Kryptonian’s body was already in their custody and they were studying it as best they could, Dr. Emil Hamilton taking the lead on that front. The big takeaway from this was that there was something that could kill Kryptonians, and considering there was an _army_ of Kryptonians like Ursa out there, that was vital intelligence and Sam would be _demanding_ that Queen share that information with them. He was sure that Amanda Waller, the director of A.R.G.U.S., would be likewise demanding an explanation from ‘her’ asset. Besides, Queen was supposed to share this kind of intelligence with them. Why had he waited until now?

Still, the knowledge that there was a substance on Earth that could be used to bring down Kryptonians was gratifying, because it meant the world had a contingency should Superman ever go rogue. Once they knew what this substance was, however reluctant Queen was to give up the information, they could begin scouring the globe for it and fashioning appropriate weapons. Bullets, gas grenades, daggers for close combat… the possibilities were endless.

**_*DC*_ **

Amanda Waller watched the confrontation between Oliver and Ursa again, studying it. Her lips had twitched minutely every time she heard Oliver say the words that she had spoken to him all those years ago in Hong Kong. Oliver Queen was now one of the most influential men in the United States between his status as the owner and C.E.O. of Queen Consolidated and his status as Green Arrow, leader of the Justice League, and he was hers, no matter how hard he tried to separate himself from the days when he worked for A.R.G.U.S. Amanda derived some satisfaction from this fact, knowing that she had had such an influence on such an influential person. The future was in the right hands with a man like Oliver Queen leading the Justice League.

The agreement between the Batman and her asset for the former to join the Justice League had been a surprise, though she had known Oliver approached the Batman months ago with the offer. Batman had never struck her as the kind of man to play well with others, but it appeared an alien attack on Gotham City was enough to shake him out of his self-imposed isolation and acknowledge that he needed to work with others.

A super-powered alien. The King of Atlantis. What Oliver reportedly called a metahuman. A woman who was long-lived. A man with access to some kind of alien technology (it had to be that). A man who had once been a member of the League of Assassins and was now ‘paying penance’ by protecting his city. Oliver himself. Seven people from disparate backgrounds brought together to serve the common good. It was a quaint idea, but it appeared Oliver had many quaint notions since his return to Starling City last October. The Justice League was merely the grandest of these quaint notions.

**_*DC*_ **

Ra’s al Ghul had watched the Battle of Gotham, such as was able to be seen, with interest. The Justice League had once again proved their worth, and Oliver Queen had killed that which was thought unkillable by the world. Considering the potential for Superman turning against the world was always there, perhaps it would be wise to find out what his method of execution was so they could incorporate it into their own weaponry. But what intrigued Ra’s most of all was that the Detective had joined Queen’s Justice League. After his stint with the League of Assassins, Ra’s had thought Bruce would never again join any society that proclaimed a dedication to justice, especially one where the members were willing to kill. And yet, he had joined the Justice League.

Perhaps this represented a weakening in the Detective’s obstinate sense of duty and an acknowledgement that the world needed those dedicated to the greater good. If so, that opened the possibility of Bruce accepting the role Ra’s had planned for him, though now Oliver Queen was in the running for becoming Ra’s’ Heir since he had proven his own willingness to kill, and he had been trained by Ra’s’ errant daughter, Talia. He had the training, the temperament, and based on his actions in the past four months, he had the conviction to stand as master of the League of Assassins. Ra’s mused over whether Talia had crafted Oliver Queen to be the perfect Heir as some way of having a ‘say’ in the way that the League was run, by having instilled her own values into Oliver Queen.

It didn’t matter, in the long run, because whether he chose Bruce or Queen, he would need to re-educate them, and both were strong-willed. It would take weeks, if not months to fully re-educate either man into becoming the perfect Warith al Ghul. But that was a thought best left until there was little choice. While the Pit’s effects were beginning to wane, they were still effective, and he was not yet at the end of his time as Ra’s.

On another matter… Al Zil had had a suggestion of some merit, offering to train assassins in the ways of high society so that they could easily blend into such situations while scoping out their targets. This was more than his father had ever done, showing a commitment to the League after all these months, something other than anger at his former friend and a willingness to serve.

**_*DC*_ **

Talia al Ghul was in an expensive hotel room in London, having watched the news out of Gotham City with interest, since Gotham was home to her Beloved. When she saw him pinned by that Kryptonian woman, she had been furious, but knew she could do nothing where she was and it would take too long to reach Gotham. Then her student had arrived with his League and turned the tide of battle, as they had done at Amnesty Bay, and then Oliver had killed the Kryptonian woman with some kind of arrow. Talia had to admit to being intrigued by whatever the arrowhead was made of, but she was more intrigued by what happened after Oliver retrieved his weapon. Bruce had accepted Oliver’s offer to join the Justice League.

Talia was intrigued by this, because Bruce had sworn to her that he would never join another organization supposedly dedicated to justice, having become burdened by guilt for what he had done while a member of the League of Assassins. That Bruce would now join the Justice League, despite the fact many of their members were willing to kill, was a surprise, until she realized he probably saw it as him keeping an eye on them, keeping them from becoming corrupted by their own power. That sounded like the man that she loved, for all of his weaknesses as well as his strengths. Talia would have to watch the events surrounding the Justice League closely now, knowing that Bruce doing what he had would intrigue her father and reignite his interest in Bruce, as well as further any interest he might have in Oliver from their previous interactions.

While Oliver might not think his destiny was to be Ra’s al Ghul, Talia al Ghul knew one thing: destinies could change. **_*1*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver Queen stepped out of the facilities in the Quiver, his uniform under his arm as he moved to the mannequin, where he slowly put his uniform back in place. Laurel’s uniform was already in place, and she was talking animatedly with Thea and Roy. Oliver smiled at his girlfriend’s enthusiasm for the life that they had chosen before pulling the government phone out of his pants pocket and selecting the president’s contact. After a hellish night restoring order in Gotham City, Oliver still had a report to make. “Mr. Queen,” the president greeted.

“Mr. President, I’m sure you’re aware of this, but Gotham is once more secure,” Oliver reported. “The majority of the aliens who were wreaking havoc have been sent back to the Phantom Zone and will no longer be a threat to Earth. The leader of the attack, Commander Ursa of the Kryptonian army serving under General Zod, is dead along with the few aliens who did not survive their encounters with a member of the League. The Justice League spent the rest of the night helping the Batman restore order in his city, and the Batman has finally agreed to join the team. With him joining, the team has a full roster, though I will continue to add heroes who come forward or who I feel would be a benefit to the team to further bolster our numbers and allow us to experiment with various team make-ups.”

“That is excellent news, Mr. Queen,” President Trumbull replied. “Try not to blame yourself for any loss of life. I’m certain you and the Justice League got to Gotham as quickly as you could.”

“We did,” Oliver said. “Doesn’t make it any easier.” He sighed. “Now that we have a full roster, I intend to call a meeting of the Justice League to begin establishing the parameters of what the League is supposed to get involved in and what should be left to each individual hero. After all, we all have our own separate missions as well as incidents like Amnesty Bay and Gotham, and a few of us will probably be against having the others get involved in their crusades.”

“You should also be aware that now that the Justice League has again proven it’s worth, there is a marked interest among the most powerful people in the country to get to know at least some of you,” President Trumbull. “It is likely that we will have an event to honor the Justice League. You, Miss Lance, and King Arthur will be expected to attend as the only publicly-known members of the Justice League.”

“Of course, Mr. President,” Oliver said. “Just tell us when and where.”

“I will keep you informed, though I wouldn’t expect any movement on that front for at least a week,” President Trumbull said. “Good day, Mr. Queen.” The president hung up, and Oliver returned the phone to his pants pocket. He turned to face Laurel and Thea. “Let’s go home,” he said. The two women nodded and followed him to the underground garage where the Camaro was parked.

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver slept through most of the day along with Laurel, after having called into Berlanti Preparatory to get Thea excused for the day. It helped that, thanks to her lack of friends due to being the only known child of Malcolm Merlyn currently in Starling City, Thea had had nothing but her studies and her training to focus on. Eventually, Oliver woke up and smiled as he found Laurel curled into his chest, his arm having slipped around her while they slept. He looked out at the city through the window in the bedroom. It was still light outside, maybe mid-afternoon. He leaned his head back against the pillow. “You don’t want to get up either, huh?” Laurel said, eyes still closed.

“Nope,” Oliver said. “All I really want to do is stay right here with you. But I have things I have to take care of. The Battle of Gotham, however brief, made a few things abundantly clear. I need to devote as much time as I can to the Justice League and protecting Starling City. I’m going to have to pass the torch to Emiko.”

“You mean make her C.E.O. of Queen Consolidated?” Laurel asked, looking up at her boyfriend. **_*2*_**

“Yeah,” Oliver said. “I have to be prepared to move out at any time, and I can’t do that if I’m juggling Justice League, Q.C., and regular Green Arrow duties. Besides, I know Emiko knows how important what I’m doing is and how important Q-Core is to those endeavors. Which reminds me, you and I need to talk to them about hardening our comm devices so you don’t have to turn off your comms every time you need to use your Cry. Every time you went off-comms last night, I was worried that one of the Vrangs or one of those taking advantage of the chaos was going to get in a lucky shot and you’d be bleeding out in the street. I know, the suit takes the hit, I know that. I just worry about you when I can’t hear you in my ear.”

“I get it, Ollie, and you’re right, we should do that,” Laurel said. “I certainly don’t want to keep doing that and then find myself outnumbered and unable to call for back-up because my comms are offline. We’re still learning the ropes of what it means to be a team with all of this. But we’re going to get there. I know we will.” She pushed herself away from Oliver reluctantly and propped herself up on her elbows, her hair falling in curtains on either side of her face. “So, you want me to come with you to Queen Consolidated?”

“Might as well kill two birds with one stone,” Oliver replied. “I’ll call Ned Foster, ask him to draw up the contracts for Emiko to sign.” Oliver leaned over and picked up his phone, turning it on. He winced when notifications popped up showing he had missed calls from _both_ Lois Lane and Susan Williams. He figured they either wanted an interview about the Battle of Gotham or they wanted him to give the details on Diana, since she was going to be pretty widely publicized as a member of the Justice League now. Oliver would have to talk to Diana about giving interviews, anyways, because with a face like hers, there was no way she could hide her true identity, and it was obvious she wasn’t a big fan of masks.

Oliver called Ned, who answered quickly enough. “Ned, that thing we talked about is going to have to happen,” Oliver said. “Get the contracts drawn up. I’ll be in to broach the subject with Emiko in the next couple of hours.”

“Alright, Oliver, if you’re sure this is the way to go about it,” Ned said.

“I’m sure this is the best thing for the company,” Oliver said. “Queen Consolidated deserves to have a C.E.O. that is fully committed to it, and I can’t be that, not anymore. In all honesty, I should’ve handed over the reins as soon as Emiko was confirmed as a Queen. I have too many other responsibilities to be the leader that Queen Consolidated needs.”

“To be honest, I was wondering when I would get this call,” Ned admitted. “You’ve done a good job, but if you ever go away for two weeks like you did to Amnesty Bay, it’ll have things pile up again.”

“Yeah, it’s been a while in coming,” Oliver said. “I’ll see you at the office, Ned.”

“I’ll see you and Emiko soon, Oliver,” Ned replied.

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver and Laurel entered Applied Sciences and immediately found themselves the center of attention, right before the scientists in the room began applauding. Emiko was standing by and watching with fond exasperation. Oliver raised a hand. “Thank you, all of you, for your enthusiasm,” Oliver said. “But we’re here for a reason. Emiko, would you join us? We need to go down to Q-Core, and I have something I need to discuss with you.”

“Sure,” Emiko said cheerfully, and she joined Oliver and Laurel as they headed for the office where Q-Core was housed. The Robert Queen Applied Sciences Center was due to finish construction by late spring, early summer, and once that was done the division would have an entire laboratory for their experiments, which would allow Dr. Briggs to expand his team. When they entered Q-Core, Oliver was only mildly surprised to see Caitlin Snow with them, discussing something intensely with Cisco Ramon. “Dr. Briggs, Oliver and Laurel need to see you,” Emiko said, announcing their presence.

“Ah, Mr. Queen, Miss Lance, glad you made it through that unpleasantness last night,” Dr. Briggs said. “What brings you by?”

“Two things, both of which relate to Laurel,” Oliver said. “I’ll let her cover her issue first.”

Dr. Briggs turned to Laurel expectantly. “Last night I dealt with packs of alien werewolves that took a lot of swings at my exposed throat,” Laurel said, placing a hand on the duffel bag carrying her suit. “I was hoping you could modify it a bit, add a collar to protect my neck from attacks.”

“We can certainly do that, Miss Lance,” Dr. Briggs said, taking the duffel bag as Laurel handed it over to him. “Now, what’s this other issue?”

“Last night, Laurel had to repeatedly turn off her comms to use the Canary Cry to subdue the Vrangs and later common criminals,” Oliver replied. “We’re concerned that someone could take advantage of that one day. We were hoping that you could work with Laurel to harden our comm devices against all pitches of the Canary Cry that she uses frequently.”

“Yes, I can see how that would be a problem,” Dr. Briggs said. “Dr. Snow, this sounds like a task that could use your expertise, if only to make sure Miss Lance isn’t overextending herself in her work.”

“I’ll leave you all to your work,” Oliver said. “Emiko, walk with me?” Emiko nodded and the Queen siblings left the office as the scientists converged on Laurel. “We’re going to see Ned Foster,” Oliver told his sister as they left Applied Sciences and went to the elevators.

“Ned?” Emiko asked, confused.

“He has some contracts for you to sign,” Oliver said. “Emiko, the truth is I should’ve done this after you were officially made a Queen. The Justice League and Green Arrow demand most of my time. Queen Consolidated needs a C.E.O. that can devote all of their time to the company, and there’s only one Queen by blood left who has the right to take that position.”

“Oliver, are you serious about this?” Emiko asked hoarsely. Oliver was asking her to be Queen Consolidated’s new C.E.O.? Her?

“I am completely serious about this, Emiko,” Oliver said as he hit the button for the administrative level. “You are far better-suited than I to run this company. I don’t know what Dad was thinking, refusing to let you join the company, because you are more dedicated to Queen Consolidated than I could ever be.” Emiko had told Oliver about her proposing an idea to Robert and it being turned down because it would bring her into the company, which Robert claimed was Oliver’s. “I have a feeling I was always destined to become Green Arrow, not C.E.O. of Queen Consolidated. You have the bloodline, the training, and the drive to make this company all that it can be. I want you to take over as C.E.O., Emiko. I _need_ you to.”

“Thank you, Oliver,” Emiko said. “I-I never imagined this would happen so soon. I figured you’d stay C.E.O. for a few years, wait until I had more time with the company.”

“Well, it’s happening now, and I’m certain that Queen Consolidated is in excellent hands,” Oliver said as the elevator door opened onto the administrative level. “Come on. Let’s get your contracts signed.”

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver looked out at the press contingent that had been gathered at his request, among them Susan Williams, who was trying to catch his eye. He knew what she wanted; she wanted him to either give her a method to get in touch with Wonder Woman or get in touch with her on Susan’s behalf himself. For now, he would focus on the task at hand: getting the change in leadership at Queen Consolidated out to the world. He inwardly smirked at how a certain Russian-born ex-mistress of his father’s would feel at seeing Robert’s illegitimate daughter inherit his company. Oh, revenge was so sweet, knowing that Rochev would never have his family’s company. Oliver, seeing all the press were present and accounted for, stepped up to the podium.

“Thank you for coming,” he said. “The events last night in Gotham have shaken the world, as many things of late involving myself and the Justice League have. However, I am not here to answer questions about the Battle of Gotham. My understanding is the president will address the nation tonight on the events of Gotham and I will not step on his toes. No, the Battle of Gotham is only peripherally responsible for this. Four months ago, I was asked to step up as C.E.O. of Queen Consolidated during a terrible, dark period in this company’s history, because I was the only viable candidate to restore confidence in our investors. I did so, despite my efforts against Malcolm Merlyn and Tempest, because I didn’t wish to see the company my family has built over generations fall. But the world is different from that time. Aliens walk among us. Atlanteans walk among us. Heroes rise from the shadows to combat those who answer evil’s call. Because of this, my time at Queen Consolidated has been limited, and the Battle of Gotham has forced me to acknowledge that it is time for me to step aside and allow someone who has the drive, the training, the bloodline, and most of all the commitment to making Queen Consolidated the best it can be to take my place. It is my distinct honor to introduce you to the new C.E.O. of Queen Consolidated, my sister, Emiko Queen!”

Emiko stepped forward at the podium as Oliver stepped aside, a symbolic gesture to show the passing of the torch and squared her shoulders. It was time to show the world what Emiko Queen was all about.

**_*DC*_ **

Isabel Rochev watched in stunned disbelief as Robert’s illegitimate daughter was granted the status of C.E.O. of Queen Consolidated by her brother, Oliver Queen. Isabel was _furious_. She had had a plan in her head; she had known Oliver Queen would have to step down as C.E.O. of Queen Consolidated eventually, and she had had plans to seduce him like she had his father, twist him around her little finger, and that would make him _want_ to grant her the status of C.E.O. Of course, she would be able to compete quite easily with Laurel Lance. Who would want a woman like that when they could have a woman like Isabel? She knew ways to pleasure men that she was sure that the seemingly prim and proper Miss Lance had no idea even existed.

But now all her plans were ashes, because Oliver Queen had made his half-sister C.E.O. of Queen Consolidated, and with Oliver being the owner of the company with seventy percent of the shares in his possession, she couldn’t even wiggle her way into a position by slowly buying up a majority share in the company. Moira Queen had made sure her shares passed to Oliver and Oliver had bought up all the shares people sold to give himself the majority shareholder position. So, yes, Isabel Rochev was _furious_ , and she relieved her anger by shutting down an ailing company under the umbrella of Stellmoor International. **_*3*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver and Laurel returned to the loft to find Thea sitting on the couch. “So, Emiko’s C.E.O. now,” Thea said. “I guess that makes sense.”

“You’re not upset?” Oliver asked guardedly.

“No, Ollie, because I never wanted anything to do with the company,” Thea said. “So, what now?”

“Now, I have a phone call to make,” Oliver said, taking out his encrypted phone and selecting Diana’s contact. Once the call was live, he put his phone to his ear.

“Oliver,” Diana greeted, a smile in her voice. “What can I do for you?”

“Well, I have had to field calls from two very eager reporters who are wanting a one-on-one with you,” Oliver said, “and I felt obligated to give you a call both to pass their messages onto them, and to say that you are more or less in the same position that Laurel, Arthur, and I are in. You don’t hide your face, and, I say this as platonically as possible, you are definitely the most beautiful woman in the world. People are going to connect Diana Prince with Wonder Woman.”

“I know,” Diana said. “I have already fielded a couple of probing questions at work with co-workers saying there’s a remarkable resemblance. I know this world is not the same as it was when I was last active. I would much rather get ahead of this with the aid of Lois Lane or Susan Williams.” **_*4*_**

“Do you have a preference for print or video?” Oliver asked.

“I believe a written interview would be best,” Diana said. “I believe if I were to do a televised interview, too many would focus on my appearance and not on the words I was saying, and I want what I have to say to be understood.”

“I’ll call Lois,” Oliver said. “Would you rather do the interview in New York, or go to Metropolis or here in Starling?”

“I believe I will go to Metropolis,” Diana said. “I will contact Clark and give him the details of my arrival.”

“Sounds fair,” Oliver said. “I can give you his personal number.” He rattled off the phone number. “Anything else I can help you with?”

“Give my apologies to Miss Williams,” Diana said. “Goodbye, Oliver.”

“Goodbye, Diana,” Oliver said. He hung up. “Well, the _Daily Planet_ is going to land one whopper of a story,” he said, looking at Laurel. “Would you mind terribly being the one to explain to Susan why Diana chose them over a recorded interview?”

“Why did she?” Laurel asked, raising an eyebrow.

“She wanted people to actually focus on her words instead of her looks,” Oliver said.

“I don’t blame her,” Thea said. “The woman is a _goddess_.”

“Demi-goddess, actually,” Oliver said, lips twitching.

Thea froze. “That’s just some kind of ranking of yours regarding attractiveness, right?” she asked hopefully.

“Like I said, whopper of a story,” Oliver said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* This time the reactions were limited since there were *other* things that needed to be taken care of in this chapter. I feel all of the reactions were in character for the people in question.
> 
> *2* This has been a while in coming. I knew Oliver was going to have to pass the torch to Emiko eventually simply because of how often his life is interrupted by Green Arrow or Justice League business.
> 
> *3* I mainly included Rochev’s reaction for the amusement factor. She is *not* happy at all, which makes me and Oliver very happy, indeed. Of course, she has to be a psychotic bitch and fire a whole bunch of people to make herself feel better.
> 
> *4* Yup, Diana’s joining the ranks of the publicly-known heroes. There really wasn’t a way around that because it’s DIANA and she’s not exactly a wallflower who can blend in with the crowd.


	43. The Article II

Lois Lane studied the article that she had written thoroughly, wanting to make sure it was perfect before sending it off to Perry to make the morning edition of the _Daily Planet_. Her and Clark’s coverage of Oliver’s rise to prominence, her interview with Clark’s alter ego, the unveiling of Atlantis, and now an exclusive interview with Wonder Woman. And what a ‘wondrous’ interview this had been.

**_Diana of Themyscira:_ **

**_The Origin of Wonder Woman_ **

_by_

_Lois Lane_

_From their famous showdown with the Trench at Amnesty Bay, thwarting an assassination attempt on the President of the United States, and now their successful defense of Gotham City from an alien army, the Justice League has been at the center of a maelstrom of events that simply defy all expectations. Among the events of lesser focus is the joining of two new members to the now-seven person team, with Oliver Queen, Starling City’s Green Arrow, confirming that this makes a full roster in his eyes, though he will continue to recruit heroes as needed to give the Justice League a variation of team make-ups depending on each situation they are called in to deal with. The two newest members are the Batman of Gotham City and the Wonder Woman of New York City. I was allowed to sit down with the latter (the former is notorious for wreathing himself in shadows and rumor to the point that most people didn’t know he existed) and get insight into what makes her tick._

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _Wonder Woman, thank you for sitting down with me and giving this interview. I promise that your trust will not be misplaced. I understand you have your own reasons for doing this, including wanting to get ahead of the curve regarding your identity._

**_Wonder Woman:_ ** _That is correct, Miss Lane. For now, we shall go with the name I assumed when I first entered Man’s World, Diana Prince. I am currently working at the Met in New York City._

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _That is quite forthcoming, Miss Prince. What did you mean when you say, “Man’s World?”_

**_Diana Prince:_ ** _As I’m sure people are aware of by now, there are old secrets and ancient powers on this world that are hidden from the annals of human history. One of those things is the existence of my people, the Amazons. My mother is Queen Hippolyta of the Amazons. We lived on the island of Themyscira, which is hidden from Man’s World, the world at large, by ancient magicks. I first entered Man’s World during World War I._

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _World War I? That was a century ago! How is it you look so young?_

**_Diana Prince:_ ** _All Amazons were granted long life by Zeus, and the magicks that protect Themyscira also bolster the long life of my people. I’m a special case even among Amazons. I am the result of a union between Zeus and my mother, Queen Hippolyta._

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _Alright, let’s deconstruct that for a moment. You’re telling me that the Greek Pantheon actually exists? That Zeus, Hera, Ares, all of them are real and exist to this day?_

**_Diana Prince:_ ** _No. Even gods can die, Miss Lane, if they are betrayed by another god. The gods died in an effort to stop Ares from destroying mankind centuries ago._

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _Alright. We’ve seen a lot of strange things the past couple of months. An alien from another world, the return of Atlantis to the world stage. I suppose we can accept the idea that the ancient gods that mankind used to worship are in fact real. Do you know if the gods of the other pantheons were real?_

**_Diana Prince:_ ** _I do not, though I would remind you that many of the gods were simply named different depending on if you were speaking with a Greek or Roman. It is more likely that there was only one race of gods and they were known by many names by mankind’s ancestors._

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _You said the gods died. Most people assume that gods are immortal._

**_Diana Prince:_ ** _They were, for the most part. Only a god, or demi-god, can kill another god. Unfortunately, Ares stirred up mankind to take up arms against each other and drew power from those conflicts, as befitting the God of War. As a result, he managed to kill the gods, but not before Zeus cast him down from Mount Olympus, stripping him of his power greatly. Zeus also created what mankind calls a contingency plan: me. He joined with my mother to create a being that could defend mankind from Ares should he ever return._

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _And has he returned?_

**_Diana Prince:_ ** _I entered Man’s World in World War I after a man named Steve Trevor broke through the barrier that protects Themyscira from Man’s World and told us of the war happening in the outside world. I firmly believed this was ‘the war to end all wars’ that had been predicted in prophecies dating back centuries, prophecies that claimed the Amazons were meant to fight this battle. But my people have become isolationist and none wished to enter Man’s World. I defied my mother to do so, and she reluctantly gave her blessing for me to enter Man’s World, but cautioned me to be careful, as any mother would. Ares was manipulating some events in World War I, drawing power from the conflict. We fought and I defeated him, but I would hesitate to say I killed him. I believe it is possible that World War II and the Cold War that followed could have revitalized him._

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _So, to clarify, you are saying that you are a demi-goddess and that you are the half-sister to the god of war, who may or may not be manipulating events from the shadows, drawing power from mankind’s conflicts with one another, with the ultimate intent to destroy our entire species?_

**_Diana Prince:_ ** _I am. I understand it is quite the fantastical story and I will not blame people if they choose to disbelieve it. But I am telling the truth._

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _I see. Thank you for being so forthcoming. Now, if you’ve been around since World War I, why hasn’t there been a record of your alter ego in the past?_

**_Diana Prince:_ ** _Steve Trevor became very important to me, and he sacrificed himself to destroy the weapon that Ares’ puppets had created. I’m afraid that losing a man that I loved made me wish to not connect to the world, feeling it would leave me with nothing but heartbreak as those I cared for withered and died._

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _So, what changed?_

**_Diana Prince:_ ** _Oliver Queen. Much like Superman, I saw an ordinary man, like Steve had been, being willing to fight overwhelming odds, even sacrifice any chance he had at a normal life with the woman he loved for the greater good. It gave me a spark of hope that I haven’t felt in a long time. The Justice League’s stand at Amnesty Bay further inspired me. When Oliver and Laurel approached me a few weeks ago in Paris, I couldn’t help but accept the offer made. I moved to America soon after and took a job at the Met._

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _It seems a great many people either consider Oliver Queen to be inspiring or seek to blame him for the world shifting on it’s axis, as it were. What are your thoughts on the matter?_

**_Diana Prince:_ ** _The world has always been strange and unusual, Miss Lane. The only thing Oliver Queen has done is shine a light into the shadows._

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _Should we expect an embassy from Themyscira at some point, as has happened with Atlantis?_

**_Diana Prince:_** _I would not expect one for some time, no. I must first find Themyscira again, as I admit I slept most of the journey from Themyscira to London when I entered Man’s World and therefore I do not know_ where _it is. Perhaps once the immediate crisis is over, I will undertake the search for my homeland and seek to reunite the Amazons with the rest of the world._

**_Lois Lane:_** _Yes, the President’s address informed the world that there is an_ army _of Kryptonians out there who were sentenced to a prison that crashed down to Earth some time ago, and that both Green Arrow and Superman have been working against these alien forces since they arrived. What are your thoughts on this matter?_

**_Diana Prince:_ ** _I have come to believe that conflict is a way of life for mankind, for any species, and so it does not surprise me that General Zod and his followers wish to subjugate humanity, just as it does not surprise me that Oliver, Kal-El, and others such as myself will stand against them. My only concern is such a conflict might draw Ares’ attention, though I suspect if it did he would remain in the shadows. Our last meeting did not go well for him, and he would be less-inclined to meet me in open battle again._

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _Is there anything else that you would like to tell the world?_

**_Diana Prince:_ ** _If there is one thing that I have learned in my long life, it is that fear of the unknown makes us do irrational things, no matter who we are, where we come from, or what we do with our lives. Fear of the unknown is a constant, but how we react to that fear? That is our own choice. It is my hope that by being truthful with you today, by showing the world who I am without hiding anything, that I can abate some of the fears people might instinctually have at my existence. But only time will tell if my hopes are unfounded._

**_Lois Lane:_ ** _Thank you for speaking with me, Miss Prince, and I hope you’re faith in humanity is not misplaced._

Lois nodded to herself. Yes, this was as good as it was going to get. She attached the file to an email and sent it to Perry for final approval. Tomorrow, when this hit the newsstands, minds were going to _blow_. Again. **_*1*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver Queen set down the tablet that he had been reading Lois’ newest article from aloud, looking at Laurel and Thea. Laurel had had some preparation since she had been with Oliver when he found Diana and learned the truth of her origins, but Thea had a pole-axed expression that Oliver was used to seeing on the face of John Diggle whenever something new and strange made an appearance and further complicated their lives. Apparently, the more things changed, the more they stayed the same. Then again, Thea _had_ had a reaction to learning they knew The Flash back when Barry had asked them for help with Vandal Savage, but by the time the Dominator invasion rolled around she had been able to handle the weird stuff. Then again, she had had training, been given a second chance at life with the Lazarus Pit, fought against the likes of Damien Darhk, and been healed from the effects of the Pit by a magical potion by that point. Whereas this Thea was still getting used to the strange and unusual.

“So. A demi-goddess. An actual demi-goddess. The Greek Pantheon were real,” Thea said. “Okay. I can do this. I can handle this. I just need a moment to ground myself.”

“Take your time, Speedy,” Oliver said. “Only reason I took it so well is because I’m used to insane things and crazy revelations.” Oliver chuckled ruefully. “They kind of make up my life in general.” Thea nodded and started off to her bedroom with a dazed expression on her face to get ready for school. Oliver looked over at Laurel. “So, what do you think of Diana’s interview?”

“I think there are going to be a whole lot of people who take one look at her face and say something like, ‘Of course she’s a goddess, she’s so damned beautiful,’” Laurel said dryly. “As for the revelations? I think people are going to be scared by even more changes to what is considered to be normal, and some are gonna outright refuse to believe what she’s saying. You can bet the mono-theists are going to be outraged at the idea that gods existed and that gods can die. There might be a revitalization of worship aimed at the Greek Pantheon even though they’re all dead except for Ares.”

Oliver sighed. “You’re telling me what you think other people are going to react like,” Oliver said. “I am asking how _you’re_ feeling about all of this?”

“A little weirded out,” Laurel admitted after a moment. “I mean, I knew there were going to be some strange explanations, and I knew Diana was a demi-goddess, but this article really makes it hit home.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Oliver said. “Like I just told Thea, only reason it’s sliding off of me is because I have had to deal with a lot of strange and unusual things in my life, and that was _before_ Novu sent me back through time and gave me a second chance at life.” Oliver’s lips twitched. “Though if _we’re_ having a hard time wrapping our heads around this, I’m guessing there are a lot of people out there, good and bad, who have similar reactions to Thea to this news.”

**_*DC*_ **

**The Temporal Zone**

The crew of the _Waverider_ examined the article that had appeared in the _Daily Planet_ on March 24, 2013 with a variety of reactions.

Sara Lance couldn’t help the appreciative glance at Diana’s picture, then flushed guiltily as she caught Barry looking at her. “Sorry, it’s just…” she began, trailing off.

“I know, Sara,” Barry said with a smile. “I’m kinda staring, too. Probably has something to do with the fact that she’s a demi-goddess.”

“Or a just plain goddess,” Dick Grayson said with an appreciative smile. “On another note, I’m surprised the old gargoyle joined the Justice League. He’s not typically the type to play with others, at least, not as an equal. He’s always been more the ‘bark orders and expect them to be obeyed’ type.”

“It takes all sorts to make the world go round,” Nate Heywood said distractedly, staring at the picture of Diana Prince that accompanied the article. It was said to have been taken by Jimmy Olsen and he felt bad for the man, because he had probably gone through dozens of photo attempts to ‘get it just right’.

“Okay, we’ve been around a long time, and this is definitely new,” Carter admitted as both he and Kendra tried not to stare too much at the picture of Diana Prince.

“Yeah, this is definitely one for the books,” Kendra agreed. “Damn, is it just me or does that photo seem almost alive?”

“It’s not just you,” Mari McCabe said. “Gideon, you’re not doing anything to enhance the photo, right?”

“ _I am not, Miss McCabe,_ ” Gideon replied.

“I think this is going to be another of those times where we all need a stiff drink,” Rip Hunter said. No one argued with him. **_*2*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Slade Wilson set the tablet down on the table in front of him and stood up, moving to look out at the London skyline. He was here to kill a minor member of Parliament, an easy enough mission, but a lucrative one. He had finally made contact with H.I.V.E. and they were testing him, seeing what he was capable of. They were unusually interested in how the Mirakuru affected him, though he supposed that was to be expected. There hadn’t been many who survived what he had.

He had watched the Battle of Gotham, including the cell phone footage that had been sold to news networks for a premium, and watched the tactics of the Justice League. He had only been mildly surprised when it turned out Wonder Woman was a member, and his eyelid had barely twitched when Batman had joined after Oliver killed the Kryptonian woman who was leading the attack. He had thought nothing else could _possibly_ go wrong.

Apparently, _he_ had been very, very wrong. There were still new depths of what could go wrong with his desires. How the _fuck_ was he supposed to deal with a goddamned demi-goddess of all things? What kind of preparation could prepare him for _that_? Wonder Woman was the second member of the Justice League who had put him in that mindset, the first one being Green Lantern, for whom he had no current counter except exhausting the man. He had noticed from the footage from Amnesty Bay that creating those constructs tired the man out somehow, that he had a limited amount of energy he could expend on the creation of constructs. But what kind of fucking counter could you make for a damned demi-goddess, the daughter of Zeus himself? “Fuck you, kid,” Slade snarled. “Just… fuck you!”

**_*DC*_ **

Damien Darhk set the newspaper down, his expression impassive. The last _Daily Planet_ expose had given him information on how to deal with what had been the most powerful being on the planet at the time, Superman, if he ever interfered with the affairs of H.I.V.E. But this expose was different. He had thought, upon seeing Wonder Woman in action, that while she was powerful, that a bit of magic would be enough to counter her (his agents within A.R.G.U.S. were almost ready to liberate the Kushu idol from those fools’ grasp and then he would be more than a power to be reckoned with).

But now he knew that wasn’t going to be the case. As a demi-goddess, Diana Prince was a highly-magical being (and inherently resistant to magic from the likes of the Kushu idol), making her probably the greatest threat to his plans. He would have to adjust his plans for Genesis Day, the day he would remake the world in his image, again. He may even need to step up his game, have someone else create something like A.R.G.U.S.’s Rubicon for H.I.V.E. rather than wait for Waller’s version to be finished. It would’ve been nice to lay the blame on America for the brief time the world would have to be astonished by the nuclear attacks, but in the end, that was merely an amusing little distraction from his end-game. He knew his actions could draw the risk of attracting his old friend Ra’s’ attention, but he also knew he couldn’t simply ignore what was happening in the world. If he waited too long, the Justice League would be too powerful to counter. But if he succeeded, then even the demi-goddess would burn with the rest of the world.

Now, he didn’t want to scare his family, so it was time to go torture some people to put him in his happy place.

**_*DC*_ **

Ra’s al Ghul listened carefully to the Raven that read the newspaper report aloud, arms folded across his chest. The knowledge that the Justice League had among their membership a demi-goddess, the daughter of Zeus himself, was… troubling. Oh, he didn’t doubt the veracity of Diana Prince’s claim. She had no reason to lie, especially in a world that now more or less accepted the strange and unusual as par for the course. But the power that was now at the command of the Justice League was troubling, very troubling. A practically-invincible alien, the King of Atlantis, now a demi-goddess… Oliver Queen seemed to attract the incredibly powerful with his charisma, drawing together a formidable force that could battle armies on their own and win. Right now, the Justice League numbered seven, but Ra’s had no doubt that number would grow, as indicated in the article written by Lois Lane.

Of course, a demi-goddess _could_ be killed. They were half-mortal, and thus vulnerable to being killed like any other being. But it would take quite some work to assassinate a woman as skilled as Wonder Woman was, if the need should ever arise. Ra’s would have to make plans for such an eventuality, knowing it would take more than one assassin to fell such a foe. Of course, there was the clear attraction his daughter felt for Wonder Woman to consider, based on her current enraptured state as she stared longingly at the woman’s picture on the computer screen.

Nyssa al Ghul was entranced by the picture of Diana Prince. She had thought Sara Lance an exotic beauty with her blonde hair and freckled skin, but by comparison, Diana Prince was no mere demi-goddess, but a _goddess_ in all but status as far as Nyssa was concerned. But how to ensnare such a creature, especially when the League might well be considered backwards to her with its mentality towards women? Not that Diana would have to worry about such things if she joined with Nyssa, just as Sara had not had to worry about such things when she had been among them. Nyssa’s heart still hurt for her Beloved, but her hurt heart was salved by the balm of Diana Prince’s beauty. **_*3*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Hilton and Pike were in the latter’s office. “It’s probably a good thing Quentin is still in rehab,” Hilton said. “He was already having problems with aliens and Atlantis. If he had to deal with gods and magic being real… I don’t really want to know what that would’ve looked like.”

“Agreed,” Pike said grimly. “That would’ve fucked Quentin nine different ways and then once more for good measure. Hopefully, when he gets out, he’ll be able to accept the latest shifting of the world’s axis.”

**_*DC*_ **

President Allan Trumbull was among the many men and women across the world who was blindsided by the contents of the _Daily Planet_ ’s latest expose on the heroes that were rising in the world and joining the Justice League. Trumbull was beginning to think that the history books would be arguing over which of his achievements was his greatest legacy: the founding of the Justice League, re-establishing ties with the Lost City of Atlantis, or establishing that the Greek Pantheon had, in fact, existed, in direct contradiction to the claims of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam that there was only one God.

What did this revelation mean for society as a whole, that the Greek Pantheon existed, or at least had until they were destroyed by one of their own? How many would have a crisis of faith because of this, and how many would hold even tighter to their values and beliefs because acknowledging the truth of Wonder Woman’s revelations would mean everything they believed in was a lie? How many would decry Wonder Woman as a false prophetess, a devil in sheep’s clothing meant to seduce men away from all that was good and holy?

Trumbull himself had been a lifelong atheist, only paying token support to the church he attended in his youth to keep the peace in his home, something he hadn’t had to worry about once he left home at age eighteen to make his own way in the world. But he knew there were many who firmly believed in their faiths and that this revelation would be the equivalent of firing a round across the bow of a ship. He had been told by Oliver Queen that Wonder Woman was a firm believer in truth, and he was certain she had been truthful from her position, but this was likely to cause a great deal of religious upheaval the world over and Trumbull was not looking forward to the fallout from that.

So many changes had been wrought on the world since Malcolm Merlyn’s Tempest had been exposed and his plans for the Glades of Starling City thrown down by Oliver Queen, and the world was struggling to keep up with the changes. Trumbull decided it would be wise to warn Oliver to be careful, because as the one who had essentially set the ball rolling, Oliver would be a target of religious zealots as much as Diana Prince. It would not do for two of the world’s heroes to be killed by such people, but Trumbull suspected both Queen and Prince would balk at the idea of having a protection detail from the DSS or Secret Service. They would say they could handle themselves, and they probably could.

Still, how many more of these revelations could the world take before someone snapped and said, “Enough is enough,” before trying to _do something_ about what they perceived as falsehoods being perpetrated as truth or something of that nature? The next few years would be a time of upheaval if this sort of thing continued to be the norm, Trumbull acknowledged grimly, and his administration would have to be ready for the fallout. **_*4*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* Lois sure is getting quite a bit to do in this story. Interviews with Superman and Wonder Woman, the book deal with Oliver, the expose on Atlantis from her perspective… there’s definitely gonna be a Pulitzer in there somewhere for the intrepid reporter that is Lois Lane!
> 
> *2* It’s the Legends. It wouldn’t be a Legends segment without them doing something off the wall like getting plastered due to finding out there’s a demi-goddess walking around in 2013.
> 
> *3* I hope the reactions from our various villains (or villain-adjacent in the case of Nyssa) were in character with them. Nyssa was the hardest because while she became one of the best damned characters on “Arrow” in many ways, right now she is still that very sheltered woman who is used to getting her own way as the Heir to the Demon and I tried to capture that in her reaction.
> 
> *4* Seriously, one has to consider the fallout that the revelation that the Greek Pantheon existed would have on modern society, which is almost exclusively mono-theistic. There are very few who are polytheistic these days. I know one guy who is pagan, his focus being the Norse Pantheon. Everyone else I know is either an atheist like me or Christian of one kind or another. A revelation like the Greek Pantheon being real would shake the very foundations of Western society.


	44. Coming Clean, Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: The next three chapters are essentially one big conversation, so I’m dropping all three chapters, one right after the other, today.

Oliver Queen and Laurel Lance stood in a warehouse owned by Queen Consolidated in Starling City, waiting for the rest of the Justice League to arrive. There was a conference table and chairs in the center of the warehouse. They were meeting to finalize things such as what the Justice League would get involved in, when they would interfere in one another’s crusades, if at all, and other such administrative issues. Oliver had received word from Bruce Wayne he would come as Batman and found himself shaking his head, knowing he would probably reveal Bruce’s identity to the others before the meeting ended because the Justice League couldn’t function effectively if one of them wasn’t honest and truthful with the rest and treated them with paranoia and suspicion, however earned Batman might think it was.

“So, you know what you’re going to say?” Laurel asked.

“I do,” Oliver said. “I don’t want the League getting involved in every little thing, those are supposed to be what our separate crusades take care of. The League is meant to be a successor to the J.S.A., and they were sent only on critical missions in defense of the country. Which is what we did at Amnesty Bay and Gotham.” Laurel took Oliver’s hand and squeezed it.

Slowly, the members of the Justice League arrived. First were Clark and Hal, who had both flown in under their own power. Next was Diana, who had done something similar. Arthur was the next to arrive, his clothing slightly damp from arriving via the ocean and walking the rest of the way, and finally Batman arrived, the only one to come in costume, earning a few reproachful looks from the others. Oliver was also sure Batman had in fact been the first to arrive and had just waited until all the rest were there before revealing himself. “Everyone take a seat,” Oliver said, taking a seat in the middle of the conference table, which he had pointedly not put chairs at either end of, instead placing four chairs on one side and three chairs on the other. Laurel, Hal, and Arthur joined him on one side of the table while Clark, Diana, and Batman took seats on the other. Oliver placed the anti-eavesdropping device in the center of the table and activated it. “There, now we can talk without worrying about anyone spying.”

“ ** _What exactly do we have to meet to discuss?_** ” Batman asked.

“I want to talk a bit about what the Justice League is meant to do now that we have a full roster,” Oliver said. “Firstly, my intention is to keep recruiting heroes as time goes on to vary the team make-ups so that the best team possible is selected to deal with whatever issues crop up. But that means the Justice League needs more leadership than just me. I would like the seven of us here at this table to serve as a council of sorts, making decisions that affect the Justice League as a whole. One reason I chose seven as the number was because I don’t want there to be a deadlock when deciding on an issue important to the League. By having seven, there will never be a deadlock.”

“Sounds fair to me,” Clark said, adjusting his glasses. “What exactly will our responsibilities be while serving on this Council?”

“Mostly, we’ll be deciding the make-up of the teams, setting the standards for admission into the Justice League, that sort of thing,” Oliver replied.

“I believe this is more than fair,” Arthur said.

“I’ve got no issues,” Hal said.

“I agree to serve on this council,” Diana said.

“You know you have my support,” Laurel said, squeezing Oliver’s hand gently.

“I already said I’m for it,” Clark said.

“ ** _Very well,_** ” Batman said after a moment of consideration following Clark’s words. “ ** _What else is there?_** ”

“I wanted to explain a bit of what I envisioned for the Justice League when the president first asked me to do this,” Oliver said. “Some people will think that I agreed to do this simply so that I could continue to be Green Arrow while remaining free.” Oliver’s eyes drifted to Batman for a second, who sat impassively. “The truth is that in the past five years, I have dealt with mercenaries planning to crash the Chinese economy, a man searching for a super-soldier serum from World War II, a biological weapon in the hands of an extremist, a private military outfit looking to uncover an idol with incredible magic power, and a Russian strongman who wanted to restore the oligarchy of old, with himself as one of the puppet-masters of the new regime. Malcolm Merlyn was simply the latest in a line of terrorists I’ve fought against. I have seen too much in my life to know that the Justice League is needed.”

“So, you agreed to form the Justice League because of the things you dealt with over the past five years,” Clark said.

“Yes,” Oliver said. “Now, our predecessors were sent on missions such as keeping the Nazis from developing a super-soldier serum or getting their hands onto items of true magical power that could have turned the tide of the war. That was the kind of thing the President had in mind when he tasked me with forming the Justice League after Merlyn’s plot was exposed. The very first mission this team had, when it was just me and Clark, was to find out what we were dealing with when Fort Rozz crashed down. Hal joined us in fighting off the initial wave of prisoners, but he didn’t officially join the Justice League as our liaison with the Green Lantern Corps until nearly a week later. Since then, the Justice League has had to deal with the events in Amnesty Bay and Gotham, as well as providing security for Ambassador Ford on the diplomatic mission to Atlantis and the same for Arthur here while we were in Washington D.C.

“There are going to be times when the government can’t or won’t give us the call to go in. When it comes to these times, when the world is at stake, I don’t want it said that the Justice League stood by and did nothing. The Justice League, as I have envisioned it, is a line of defense between the world and the much stranger world that not everyone is ready to deal with. And when we can’t protect them from the revelation that the world is stranger than they think, as is the case with Amnesty Bay and Gotham City, we protect them from those who would do them harm, be they from this world or any other. These events, these times when the government can’t or won’t call on us in time, are going to be up to us to recognize and contact the rest. Gotham proved that we need to work on our response time. 251 people died during that attack.

“Finally,” Oliver said, “there’s the fact that we have our own separate missions in our own cities. There are certainly times when working together against a threat will be required, but I suspect most of us here would rather we be allowed to handle our separate missions our way, and the only time one of the others intervenes is if we ask or if the threat is clearly more than we can handle on our own. Case in point, last November, I was facing a mob war that saw reinforcements come from Gotham. Batman followed those mobsters here, and he later helped me bring a decisive end to the mob war and save Laurel’s life. Without him, it is likely that the mob war would’ve continued to rage and I would have been forced to capitulate to Anatoli Knyasev’s demands or see the woman I love given a fate worse than death. That would have meant handing Helena Bertinelli over to the Russians and letting them do what they wished. Regardless of her own crimes, no one deserves what the Russians had planned for her.”

“ ** _I agree that we should only intervene with one another’s missions if there is no other choice,_** ” Batman said. “ ** _I have kept Gotham safe from the criminals I deal with for years now. I know how to deal with them. I don’t need someone coming and deciding the fate of The Joker, for example._** ” Here, he gave Oliver a short glance, and Oliver’s lips quirked into a smirk. Apparently, the Bat was still burning at what Oliver had said at the C.N.R.I. charity gala and the little dig he had made the night of the Battle of Gotham about not killing anyone they came across, even The Joker. “ ** _The ones most likely to need help from the others are myself and Oliver. The rest of you are, simply put, incredibly powerful and unlikely to need help from the rest of us unless it’s another Amnesty Bay._** ”

“I agree,” Arthur said. “But how are we supposed to communicate with one another to tell the rest about those moments like Amnesty Bay? We were lucky that day that Oliver, Hal, and Clark were already present, and luckier still that Laurel developed her sonic scream when she did, as that was the key to driving the Trench back to the depths. But we are not always going to be so lucky, and we need to find a way to communicate with each other.”

“I have my Q-Core Division at Queen Consolidated working on a hardened communications beacon that we can use to communicate with each other instantly,” Oliver replied. “Green Lantern is the closest to us, so anytime there’s trouble, he could come and get Laurel and I. Most of our cities, aside from Metropolis, are near the water and the most likely to be attacked by people looking to attack the country and give the League a black eye at the same time, which gives Arthur a way to get there. Batman would have to depend on Diana to get to whichever location fast since there’s no human technology as of yet that can instantaneously transport us to another place. Unfortunately, for the time being, we are going to have to accept that we won’t get there in time to save everyone, no matter how much we want it to be otherwise.”

“That is the grim reality of war,” Diana said, “and what we are meant to do is fight wars, whether they be with alien armies, armies from beneath the sea, or merely against crime and corruption.” The rest of the Justice League nodded grimly to Diana’s words.

“I _might_ be able to help with the transportation issue,” Clark said. “There’s a kind of technology, trans-mat portals, that can be used for instantaneous transport between worlds. We could tweak it and allow us to have a location in every major city, including Metropolis, that houses a trans-mat portal that we can use to get to from our own lairs. It would probably mean Oliver would have to buy up property in every major city to have it, but that could cut down on our response time dramatically.”

“I like that idea, Clark,” Oliver said. “Anyone else have anything to say about Clark’s idea?”

“ ** _I am uncertain about having such a device in the Batcave,_** ” Batman said flatly. “ ** _Couldn’t it be hijacked and used to attack us?_** ”

“It’s possible,” Clark admitted. “The technology is not full-proof. I don’t think anyone here will blame you if you prefer to have yours in a separate location.” Batman nodded.

“Now, I guess, we decide the nitty-gritty details on all of this,” Oliver said, and the Justice League got to work hashing out everything they had discussed in greater detail. **_*1*_**

The meeting was slowly winding down when Diana spoke up. “Oliver, shouldn’t you tell the others about the Crisis? The sooner they know about it, the sooner they can help prepare for it.”

“I can think of at least one person here who won’t believe the circumstances surrounding my knowledge regarding the Crisis, Diana,” Oliver said, his eyes drifting to Batman, who simply narrowed his eyes. “The only way I can think of is if you put your Lasso around me while we talk. But first, you’ll probably have to demonstrate the Lasso’s power on someone else.”

“I don’t know what this Crisis talk is about, but I don’t like the thought that there’s something you’re hiding from us, Oliver,” Hal said quietly. “What’s special about Diana’s lasso?”

“The Lasso of Hestia compels those in its embrace to tell the truth,” Diana replied. “Even those who have convinced themselves of a different truth by lying to themselves or due to insanity are compelled to tell the absolute truth, no matter how much they fight it.”

“ ** _Interesting,_** ” Batman said softly. “ ** _But how do we know that it’s power is real?_** ”

“Seems to me that there’s a very simple way to handle this,” Oliver said, meeting Batman’s gaze. “The rest of us know one another’s identities. I’m the only one here who knows who you are under that cowl.” Laurel started, looking at Oliver in surprise. Oliver couldn’t spare his girlfriend a reassuring glance, focused as he was on Batman. “So, I propose this: let Diana put the Lasso around you, and then she asks you one very simple question: what is your legal name? You should try to lie, to show you the power of the Lasso. I know you use your civilian identity as a mask, that just as the Green Arrow is who I am at my core, the Batman is who _you_ are at your core. If the Lasso can compel those wrapped in it to tell the truth, which I know it can, it will force you to tell the rest your name, putting you on equal standing with the rest of the team, something that is fully required if the Justice League is going to work.”

“ ** _I guard my identity for a reason,_** ” Batman said. “ ** _I am not you. My ally is the shadows._** ”

“And that’s a fine ally for when you’re fighting in the streets of Gotham City,” Oliver replied. “But if this is going to work, if we’re going to trust one another with our lives in the field, then we have to be on equal standing. I’ll be honest: the last thing I was going to do here was reveal who you were. I’ve allowed you your secrecy for the time being, but as I said, this team needs to be able to trust one another, and that trust can’t be built if one of us hides his civilian identity.”

“ ** _You make a good point,_** ” Batman finally said. “ ** _But if anyone asks a question other than that…_** ”

“We won’t,” Oliver promised. “Just your legal name.”

“ ** _Then, so be it,_** ” Batman said, and nodded to Diana, who wrapped him in the Lasso.

“What is your legal name?” Diana asked.

Batman visibly struggled as the Lasso of Hestia worked it’s magic, but finally, he ground out, “ ** _Bruce Wayne._** ” Everyone looked to Oliver for confirmation, shock evident on most of their faces. The only one who was contemplative was Arthur, since he had less exposure the world and didn’t know the full impact of Batman being Bruce Wayne. Oliver nodded, to show this was the truth. Diana undid the Lasso. “ ** _I trust that my identity will not be bandied about,_** ” Batman said, continuing to use the voice modulator out of pure paranoia, at least that was what it was in Oliver’s opinion.

“I won’t be revealing your identity,” Oliver promised. “And I’m sure the others will not, either. Diana, Laurel, and Arthur know what it’s like to be a public hero the same as I do, and Clark and Hal have lives outside of their heroism.” There were nods of assent.

“I guess I have no choice but to trust you all,” Bruce finally said, turning off his voice modulator and removing his cowl, meeting their gazes with a grim expression. “Now, we can move on to the true purpose of this exercise.” He turned his gaze on Oliver.

“Alright, Diana, do what you must,” Oliver said. “Considering the fact that I’m sure everyone will have a lot of questions once the full circumstances of my knowledge are revealed, I will say we should probably get all of it out of the way in one go. Ask me as many questions as you want so we can get everything out there.” Oliver nodded at Diana, who put the lasso around him.

“What is the Crisis and how do you know about it?” Diana asked, knowing this would be enough.

“The Crisis on Infinite Earths is a universe-ending threat that is due to happen in 2024, currently,” Oliver replied. “I know about it because this is not the first time that I’ve lived my life. The Crisis was moved up in my original life to 2019, and I died in the opening battle, only to wake up over seven years in the past, on the day I returned to Starling City. Everything I have done, all the actions I have taken, is to ensure the world has champions to face the Anti-Monitor and the Crisis he brings on the universe. I will not apologize for that. I personally witnessed two separate universes get wiped from existence by the Anti-Monitor. I don’t know if we can save the rest of the multiverse, but if we can save _our_ universe, than maybe that will be enough.”

Slowly, the Justice League digested what the man who had brought them together was saying.

Bruce Wayne was contemplative as he considered the impact of what Queen was saying. He had felt the power of the Lasso, and if it’s most basic power was real, the power to compel others to tell the truth, than the touted elements such as not allowing mentally ill people to speak their falsehoods as truth was also true. Which meant that everything Queen was saying was true. They had less than twelve years before a threat arrived that threatened the entire universe. Instantly, Bruce’s mind began compiling a list of questions he would ask to gather as much intelligence on the enemy as he could so he could prepare a counter to them, somehow. A small part of Bruce’s mind asked what good a man like him could be against a universe-ending threat, especially when apparently Queen had _died_ , and he was at least as skilled as Bruce was in combat.

Arthur Curry was stunned at what had just been laid out before them. He had suspected there was _some_ reason Oliver had undertaken forming the Justice League beyond being allowed to operate as Green Arrow openly. But nothing could have prepared him for _this_. The _universe_ itself was in danger of being destroyed in less than twelve years. Arthur immediately made plans to speak to Vulko and the rest of Atlantis’ top minds to prepare their civilization for the battle to end all battles. They would need the best weapons, armor, and defensive technologies that they could get for this battle.

Diana already knew some of this, but she hadn’t known that Oliver had witnessed two universes die before he himself had died. That must have haunted him, she thought, to see the future and know what was coming, but only be able to do so much to stop it. No wonder he carried himself as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders. In many ways, it _was_ , but now he didn’t need to carry that burden alone. That was why she had asked him about sharing the Crisis with the rest of the team. He needed as many people as possible working towards stopping it with him, not carrying the burden of it on his own, even if he had Laurel at his side to help bolster him when he faltered. As she had thought when he first told her about it, back in Paris, she couldn’t help but think if there was ever a war to end all wars, it would be the war for the survival of the universe against the greatest evil that Oliver had ever faced. That was the war that Amazons were destined to fight, and that made finding Themyscira again and convincing them to rejoin Man’s World all the more important.

Laurel, like Diana, had heard Oliver talk briefly about the Crisis under the lasso’s power in Paris, but like Diana, she hadn’t known that Oliver had seen two universes be destroyed before he died in the last timeline. Her heart ached for the man that she loved that he had carried this burden alone. _No more,_ she thought to herself as she gazed into his blue eyes with her green ones. _No more will you carry this burden alone, Ollie. I’m going to be here, every step of the way, and together with our friends, we’ll defeat the Crisis. I’m not losing you._ Because that was perhaps the thing Laurel focused on the most in his grave forewarning about the Crisis. Oliver had _died_ in the first battle for the fate of the universe. She wouldn’t let that happen this time. She would stand by his side until the end if it came down to it. They were a team in life _and_ death, and she was going to make sure he understood that.

Hal had a grim expression on his face as listened to Oliver speak. What frustrated him to no end was that from the sounds of it, Oliver had faced this Crisis on Infinite Earths without the aid of the Green Lanterns in _any_ universe. What the hell had happened to the Corps in the future? Why had they stood idly by as the universe was destroyed? Why hadn’t they fought side-by-side with Oliver and whoever else had been tasked with fighting the Crisis? Hal made plans to go to Oa and report this to the Guardians once the immediate threat of General Zod and his army were dealt with. The Guardians needed to be informed, they _needed_ to bolster the Corps with as many Lanterns as possible. This was the kind of threat the Corps was meant to fight, and Hal would be _damned_ if Oliver and the rest of the League fought the Crisis alone this time around.

Clark had known about Oliver witnessing the destruction of Earth-38, but not that he had witnessed _another_ Earth be destroyed. Clark wondered if there was some cosmic being in the universe that had it out for Oliver Queen, to force him to witness such things and then be given a chance to live his life over again from the point he returned to Starling City, only for that second chance to quickly de-evolve into an entirely new timeline where Oliver had no idea what was coming. That was what he had said in the hotel room in Metropolis when they first met to discuss Clark joining the Justice League. Oliver had admitted he had changed things too much and that he didn’t know what was going to happen anymore. But now, Clark really thought about it. Oliver had seen two universes be destroyed. Countless trillions if not more wiped from existence in each universe. How was it that Oliver could go on with that knowledge? Oliver Queen was stronger than Clark had known, and he had known the man was pretty strong to begin with. **_*2*_**

Finally, Bruce spoke. “The Anti-Monitor,” he said. “Who is he? What does he want?”

“The Anti-Monitor is the greatest evil that I have ever faced, and to be honest, I only ever faced his minions, Shadow Demons,” Oliver replied. “The Shadow Demons were what killed me, in the end. Mauled me more or less to death on Earth-38. And I never found out what all he wanted beyond destroying the entire multiverse. The Monitor, the being that opposed him and that I was sworn to serve at the time, wasn’t exactly forthcoming. Probably because he had foreseen my death in the Crisis and didn’t want to waste valuable intelligence on someone who wasn’t going to make it through the battle to come.”

“But that’s not happening anymore, right?” Laurel asked swiftly. “That’s what you told me when you told me the truth about you coming back through time.”

“And I was telling the truth,” Oliver replied. “When I killed Eobard Thawne, who was masquerading as Harrison Wells, I erased the timeline I came from, including the Crisis happening five years earlier. The Monitor told me afterward that I was freed from my previous destiny, that I was no longer slated to die in the Crisis on Infinite Earths. That my life was my own. But I knew the Crisis was still coming, and so I acted as openly as I have been in order to inspire others to step forward, into the light, to fight as champions for the world. As I told Malcolm, I may die at some point, but I’ll die knowing the world has it’s heroes.” Laurel grimaced at the way Oliver was so cavalier about his death but knew now wasn’t the time to discuss it with him. But they would be having words when they had a moment of privacy. She was _not_ going to date someone with a suicide wish, and if that meant forcing Oliver into therapy, so be it. He never _had_ gone back to see Dr. Green.

“Who was Eobard Thawne?” Bruce asked swiftly.

“Eobard Thawne was a super-villain from the twenty-second century who was an enemy of Barry Allen, who in the future will become a superhero known as The Flash,” Oliver replied. “Thawne, or the Reverse-Flash, traveled back in time to kill Barry as a child, but The Flash traveled back through time as well and saved his younger self before the Reverse-Flash could do anything. Thawne was enraged and decided if he couldn’t kill The Flash, he would make sure that he never existed. So, he killed Barry’s mother, framing Henry Allen for the murder of his wife. But by doing so, by erasing The Flash from history, he erased the reason for his own research into gaining his speed, the thing that allowed him to travel back and forth through time. He ended up stuck in our time, and he stole the identity of Harrison Wells, killing the real Wells and his wife in the process, so that he could advance our world’s technology forward at a faster rate and build the Particle Accelerator, which is what gave Barry his own powers.”

“Why did you kill him?” Bruce asked. Oliver wasn’t surprised in the least that this was a question Bruce would ask.

“The Flash and a team of time travelers called the Legends, led by Sara Lance, were able to monitor changes in the timeline, the changes that I was making,” Oliver said. “The Monitor warned me that they would not confront me directly, but instead go back to the night I returned to Starling and erase my future knowledge while I slept, thereby restoring the original timeline. It was either let the timeline play out as it had before, ending with my death, Laurel’s death, and so much more that I’m haunted by, or stop The Flash and the Legends. I chose the latter. The only way to stop them was to erase the original timeline, and Thawne played a critical role in that timeline. By removing him, I erased that timeline from existence. Clark said once I should think of it not as erasing all those lives from existence but as giving them a second chance. I’ve been trying to think like that.” Clark nodded when people shot looks his way.

“So, the primary reason you agreed to form the Justice League was because of the Crisis?” Arthur asked.

“That and other things that I’ve dealt with over the years,” Oliver replied. The Justice League exchanged glances, even Laurel. What else could there be besides a universe-ending threat? “I said you would have questions. Ask.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* I hope the administrative stuff re: the Justice League was interesting. I tried not to let it become a dry business meeting.
> 
> *2* I really tried to figure out how each character would react to the news that the universe itself had a ‘shelf life’ if the Anti-Monitor has his way. I hope these reactions were in-character for the JL members.


	45. Coming Clean, Part 2

“What’s the earliest threat that you can remember that you feel the Justice League would need to get involved in?” Hal asked.

“That would be the army of Mirakuru soldiers,” Oliver said with a grimace.

“What’s Mirakuru?” Diana asked.

“A super-soldier serum developed by the Japanese in World War II,” Oliver replied. “It has a very high mortality rate, over ninety percent, but that can be sidestepped by someone with the Mirakuru in their system giving transfusions with their blood. It gives the person injected with it superhuman strength, reflexes, healing… the only person that’s been injected with it right now is able to shrug off semi-automatic gunfire without any issue, and that’s even without the ceramic armor he wears. The only thing it doesn’t seem to heal is damage to the eyes. I took this man’s eye, trying to put an arrow in his brain, and he's still walking, talking, and planning to destroy everyone and everything that I love because of a misunderstanding and the silver tongue of Dr. Anthony Ivo.”

“Who is this man?” Bruce asked.

“Slade Wilson. He’s former A.S.I.S., and he was once my best friend, my brother,” Oliver replied. “Currently, he’s making a name for himself as a mercenary called Deathstroke, but if things play out even remotely the same as they did last time, then Slade is going to be coming for me, my family, and my city come October.”

“Is there any way to counteract the Mirakuru?” Arthur asked.

“Only one,” Oliver replied, “and I could use your help on that front, Arthur. Ivo developed a cure for the Mirakuru before he died, but it went down with the _Amazo_ when I thought I had killed Slade. I have to hope that it’s somewhere in the _Amazo_ ’s wreck. If you or someone else could search for it… It would be in a syringe, the serum inside a light blue.” Arthur nodded to show he understood the parameters. “I know it’s a long-shot, but it'd be better to have something to work with. Aside from that, the only option would be to wait until we can get a sample of the Mirakuru. The person who created a cure for the Mirakuru last time, Dr. Caitlin Snow, is researching Laurel’s genetic structure to discover what gives Laurel her powers. I’m sure that she’ll soon discover the metagene and I’ll have to try and come up with another reason for why she should stick around Starling City.”

“Hmm, I’ve read some of Dr. Snow’s work, brilliant woman,” Bruce said.

“She’s also a metahuman,” Oliver replied, “not that she knows it yet. She was actually the first person I know whose metagene was unlocked. Her father unlocked it when she was a child, but it eventually resulted in a split personality. Without human contact, her icy side could become a villain.”

“Noted,” Bruce said. “Back to the Mirakuru: how would we get a sample?”

“Honestly, the way we got a sample last time was a fluke,” Oliver replied. “My apprentice had been injected with it and was one of the lucky survivors. Slade used him to build his army, draining him via transfusion to empower the bus-load of violent psychopaths he had released. There was a sample of the Mirakuru there. But Slade’s not going to just leave it lying around, and it's unlikely Roy will be injected this time. So, the only way to get a sample would be if someone,” here, he looked at Superman, then Wonder Woman, then Aquaman, then Green Lantern, “managed to restrain him long enough for us to draw a blood sample, which we could then separate the Mirakuru from and develop a cure from there.” Oliver sighed. “I honestly hope that we can stop Slade from ever creating his army. A.R.G.U.S. almost leveled Starling City the last time in order to stop the army from getting out. But for that… I’ll need your help.”

“And you’ll have mine, at the very least,” Clark said.

“Mine, as well,” Diana nodded.

“Thank you,” Oliver said.

“Why is Slade Wilson so fixated on you to begin with?” Bruce asked.

“The Mirakuru causes insanity, hallucinations, and more,” Oliver replied. “Ivo knew that Slade was susceptible to his silver tongue thanks to his weakened mental defenses. The night Slade was injected with the Mirakuru, we thought he died. In truth, he _did_ die and then the Mirakuru restarted his system. Before it did, though, Ivo killed a woman named Shado. I was… in a relationship with Shado, but Slade had feelings for her as well. Ivo tried to make me choose between Shado and Sara Lance. I tried to force him to shoot _me_ instead, throwing myself in front of the gun as he moved it from Shado to Sara. He took that as me choosing Sara and then killed Shado. He later admitted to Sara that she was never going to be killed, meaning he intended to kill Shado all along. But Sara warned me of the insanity the Mirakuru could induce, so we hid the truth from Slade. Maybe if I had been honest with him then, none of this would happen. But I chose to lie to him, and then Ivo twisted what I did, along with the guilt I was feeling for Shado’s death, while Slade was present, and Slade, who had fixated on destroying Ivo, had a new target for his rage: me. And it’s been that way ever since.”

“Why do you want to cure him, then?” Bruce asked, eyes narrowing. “You killed Merlyn. You killed Thawne. Surely Wilson is an equal threat in your eyes to the two of them. Why is Wilson different?”

“Because there is one important difference between Slade and those two,” Oliver replied. “Malcolm Merlyn was an irredeemable psychopath who wanted to commit what amounts to an act of genocide because his wife was murdered in a rough neighborhood that she _tried to help_. Eobard Thawne was a manipulative and arrogant sociopath who destroyed the life of one of my best friends because he couldn’t _be_ The Flash, as well as being a goddamned cockroach who popped up every chance that he could get in the company of some of the worst people to ever exist. He even erased Barry’s daughter from existence in order to save himself from a justified execution in the 2040s.”

Oliver took a deep, calming breath. “Slade Wilson stole my family’s company from me, murdered my mother in front of me, and tried to orchestrate the destruction of my city. By rights, yes, I should kill him. But there is one thing that makes him different, Bruce. The _Mirakuru_ is the reason for all of that. In the future, when the Mirakuru had finally been cleansed from his system, Slade was himself again. He was my _friend_ again. He helped me save the lives of all those I cared about when Talia al Ghul and Simon Morrison took all of them to Lian Yu. The last time that I saw Slade, he was going to try and find his sons, reconcile with them if he could. The next time I saw his son, Joe, he was wearing Slade’s armor. I have no illusions as to what that means for the man I love like a brother. Whatever else he may have done, however his life turned out, Slade Wilson died an honorable man, and I want to see if I can’t bring that honorable man back sooner.” Oliver’s eyes were shimmering with tears, which trickled down his cheeks. **_*1*_**

Oliver wasn’t the only one affected by his impassioned speech in Slade’s defense. Diana and Laurel’s eyes were both watery as they realized just how deeply Oliver cared about Slade Wilson and why he was going out of his way to cure him and bring back the man that was his brother-in-arms. Hal nodded to himself, knowing he had members of the Corps that he was close enough to that he would want to bring them back if they were twisted. Hell, a part of him wanted to find a way to bring back _Sinestro_ , because the man had been his mentor, the way Slade Wilson had apparently been to Oliver. Maybe it was too late for Sinestro, but if what Oliver was saying was true, then it wasn’t too late for Slade Wilson, and Hal would do his part in helping Oliver get his friend and mentor back. Bruce wasn’t sure how to feel, then he thought about how he would react if he lost Alfred, Dick, Barbara, or even Jason, not to death, but to insanity. Wouldn’t he try to save them? Wasn’t that his whole thing with trying to rehabilitate the likes of The Joker, no matter how many times the insane clown escaped from Arkham Asylum? Arthur, for his part, decided he would undertake the search for the Mirakuru cure personally. Oliver had lost so much from the sounds of it before he had died. If Arthur could help him get something back, he had to try.

“How many Mirakuru soldiers did Wilson make?” Bruce asked, bringing them back onto the topic.

“About twenty,” Oliver replied. “He hijacked a prison transport full of violent psychopaths.”

“Twenty, all with the same strengths as Wilson?” Bruce asked.

“The Mirakuru hadn’t been in them as long, and it was diluted since it had been done through a blood transfusion of sorts,” Oliver replied. “They were weaker. Pistols didn’t work on them, but they couldn’t survive a grenade.” Bruce nodded shortly, calculating what it would take to bring down such an enemy non-lethally _without_ superpowers.

“You said A.R.G.U.S. tried to destroy the city?” Hal asked severely.

“Amanda Waller lives by the same axiom I do, to a greater degree,” Oliver replied. “There are some people in this world who deal only in extremes, and it is naïve to think that anything less than extreme measures will stop them. She’s the one who taught me that, in fact. But we stopped Amanda from blowing up the city because one of my team and his girlfriend, who was Amanda’s second-in-command, stormed the operations center at A.R.G.U.S. with members of the Suicide Squad to keep her from doing anything until I had Slade down and his army neutralized.”

“Suicide Squad?” Bruce asked flatly.

“Officially, it’s designated as Task Force X,” Oliver replied. “It’s made up of high-profile criminals like the sniper known as Deadshot, China White, and at this point probably David Cain. They keep them under control by implanting miniature bombs in their spines, at the base of their skulls. If they go rogue or if Amanda thinks they’re getting uppity… boom.”

“That’s sick,” Laurel said, looking faintly ill.

“That’s Amanda Waller,” Oliver replied. “I have my own view of what extreme measures means and it differs from Amanda’s.”

“You call her by her first name,” Diana observed. “Were you… close at one point?”

Oliver turned faintly green. “Oh, God, there’s an image I didn’t need,” he groaned. “No. I call her by her first name because I refuse to acknowledge that she considered me her subordinate. I called her by her first name and continue to do because I was reminding her that I was a person and that I had equal rights, no matter what she thought. Most of all, I call her Amanda to remind her that she’s human, even if she has the ability to turn off her humanity.”

“Interesting tactic,” Bruce mused. “Anything else you can think of that we need to know about the Mirakuru?”

“I’m pretty sure A.R.G.U.S. retrieved Ivo’s notes and are attempting to recreate it,” Oliver said. “But I can’t be sure. Because of how many changes to the timeline there was before I was sent back, I don’t know what were results of changes to the timeline and what has actually happened. It’s something we need to consider an ongoing issue, just in case.” Bruce nodded, as did Diana and Arthur, the two most military-minded members of the Justice League. “That’s all I can think of.”

“What’s the next threat you think the Justice League would’ve been useful for?” Hal asked.

“The next two threats are very intertwined, so I’ll cover them both,” Oliver said. Hal nodded. “The first threat was the League of Assassins. First, some background. When you join the League of Assassins, you discard your former name and life and dedicate yourself entirely to the pursuit of balance between good and evil. Just as too much evil can corrupt someone or someplace, too much ‘good’ can do the same. The League serves to deal with that corruption, and is directed by their ‘grandmaster’, Ra’s al Ghul. The name itself is a title, passed from one Ra’s to the next, down through the centuries that the League has been in operation. The current Ra’s al Ghul has held the title for over two centuries, extending his life through means of what is called a Lazarus Pit, a mystical convergence that acts as a ‘fountain of youth’. But the Pit’s effects on Ra’s are beginning to wane, and two years from now, Ra’s will decide it’s time to force the issue of what he sees as a ‘proper heir’.”

“Proper heir?” Diana asked.

“The League of Assassins is highly patriarchal, and while Ra’s has two daughters, he will allow neither of them to succeed him,” Oliver replied. “Instead, he sees them as a means of binding his chosen successor to the League and ensuring that his legacy remains with the League after his death. In Ra’s’ eyes, the only ‘proper heir’ is a man.” Diana’s expression grew stony at that. “I don’t agree with that, Diana, but it’s the way the League is set up.” Diana nodded shortly. “I drew Ra’s’ attention when I was forced into conflict with the League by the machinations of Malcolm Merlyn, who in the last timeline lived four years longer than he did in this one and was a miserable cockroach that did whatever he felt was necessary to survive. Ra’s and I had a duel, and he defeated me with ease, crushing my windpipe before putting a sword through my lung and then kicking me off the cliff where we had been dueling.”

“You _died_?” Laurel asked, her voice sounding strangled.

“Yes,” Oliver said. “But I had made friends, friends who knew certain magicks, certain ways of bringing back the recently-deceased outside of the Lazarus Pit. They brought me back and nursed me back to health over the course of a month. I returned to Starling City and eventually Ra’s learned of my survival. What I didn’t realize at the time was that I had fulfilled an ancient prophecy from within the League.” **_*2*_**

“He who survives the sword of Ra’s al Ghul, shall become Ra’s al Ghul,” Bruce intoned softly.

“Correct,” Oliver replied. “Ra’s began to ‘court’ me, I suppose you could say, slowly dismantling my life in Starling City, culminating in him attacking my sister, Thea, in our apartment and leaving her for dead, only to offer me the chance to save her with the Lazarus Pit in exchange for one thing.”

“You had to accept his offer,” Laurel said. “Which you did, because it was _Thea_.”

Oliver nodded. “Among the League’s tenets is that the one who rises to become Ra’s al Ghul, at least in the traditional way, is meant to destroy the place of his birth, in order to cut ties with the past. With the Pit’s affects waning, Ra’s decided a month after I began training with the League that it was time for me to begin the process. He forced me to marry his youngest daughter, Nyssa, and then set things in motion to destroy Starling City by use of a biological weapon known as the Alpha-Omega Virus. It was last released in Hong Kong almost three years ago and the Chinese government covered it up as a chemical spill or something like that. I later learned that Ra’s had an ulterior motive. The leader of H.I.V.E. was presumably in Starling City, and it would offer him the chance to destroy his foe and ensure his successor followed the traditions of the League at the same time.”

“What is H.I.V.E.? Who is this foe of Ra’s’?” Hal asked.

“H.I.V.E. is an off-shoot of the League of Assassins, formed by a contemporary of Ra’s’, Damien Darhk,” Oliver said, all but snarling the name. Each of the Justice League members could feel the hatred Oliver had for this man, but only Laurel knew the reason _why_. “Darhk was a potential Heir to the Demon alongside the current Ra’s, but eventually the Ra’s of their time chose the current Ra’s to succeed him and ordered the current Ra’s to deal with his rival. But they were friends, and in a moment of weakness, Ra’s let Darhk escape. Darhk did, taking waters from the Lazarus Pit in the process and, I suspect, finding a Lazarus Pit of his own at some point. There are seven of them that I know of, the one in Nanda Parbat and six others.” Bruce filed this knowledge away. “But it turned out that it was merely one of Darhk’s agents in Starling City.”

“What happened then?”

“You have to understand that prior to this, I had made a plan so that Ra’s and I died together, but he managed to escape the trap I set,” Oliver said. “So, I was left with only one choice: face him again in combat. I did so, and this time, I won. I killed Ra’s al Ghul atop Starling Dam and claimed the Ring of the Demon as my own. And then I made one of the most foolish choices I have ever made, in hindsight. I gave Malcolm Merlyn the Demon’s Ring. He turned the League into a personal guard force, more or less, using them to defend himself from Darhk and Talia al Ghul.”

“And Dusan,” Bruce said.

“Dusan?” Oliver repeated. “I’ve never heard of him.”

“Dusan al Ghul is the only male child of Ra’s’,” Bruce said. “He’s also an albino, and thus subhuman in Ra’s’ eyes. He constantly seeks his father’s approval, and he would not have taken his father’s death lightly.” **_*3*_**

“Neither did Talia, but that’s a story for later,” Oliver said, and Bruce nodded, intrigued. “I was burnt out after the duel with Ra’s. The Arrow identity had been taken from me, my apprentice had taken my place in prison and faked his death, and my relationships with Laurel, Thea, and John Diggle were all but destroyed. I left Starling City with Felicity Smoak, who I had convinced myself I was in love with, in an effort to protect Laurel from my enemies, and I didn’t return until Laurel and Thea came to find Felicity and I in Ivy Town. It turned out that Darhk was taking advantage of the fact that Malcolm, the new Ra’s, didn’t care to continue the feud of the old Ra’s, and was making plans for his endgame.”

“I’m assuming this endgame is what makes him a threat for the Justice League,” Clark said.

“Yes,” Oliver said. “Now, I’m sure you’ve all noticed I absolutely hate Darhk.” There were nods from around the room. “The reason for that is because Darhk is the one who killed Laurel in the last timeline. He has a powerful command of magic, an overpowering magic that renders you completely helpless unless you have a protection against Dark Magic, and even then, it only works if you remember how to power it. I have such a protection, but I had forgotten about it and how to power it, so I could do nothing but stand there, frozen by Darhk’s magic, as he stabbed Laurel and carved her lung up inside of her. I rushed her to the hospital, and they told us she’d be fine, but… she seized on the hospital bed, and they called it. She died only _days_ before she was due to turn thirty-one.”

“So, in the end, you pushing her away didn’t see her protected,” Bruce said flatly. “Which is why you ignored me when I suggested you do so back when we saved her from the Bratva.” Oliver nodded shortly. “I assume Darhk is another of those you intend to kill, like Merlyn and Thawne?”

“Yes,” Oliver said stonily. “A man like Damien Darhk cannot be contained. He is the epitome of the axiom I live by. He is a man who deals only in extremes, and it is naïve to think anything less than extreme measures will put an end to his threat.” 

“Is this because he’s a threat to the world, or because he’s a threat to Laurel Lance?” Bruce returned.

“Both,” Oliver said. “I won’t pretend a part of me doesn’t want to see him dead before he can hurt Laurel. I know it’s paranoia on my part; he has no reason to go after her, and so long as the League remains focused on keeping H.I.V.E. at bay, I should never have to worry about Darhk to begin with. But I also firmly believe Darhk is one of those few threats that require a permanent solution. I know you don’t agree with that, Bruce, but I won’t be changing who I am. I’ve seen too much, been through too much to accept certain things any longer. I tried to be a better hero like you, like Clark, and it saw the death of the woman I loved, when I could have stopped Darhk weeks before that when we destroyed the source of his magic. But I was focused on being a _hero_ , and Laurel died because of it. It’s why, no matter what anyone else says, I won’t claim to be a hero. I’m a _vigilante_ , and I’m proud of that fact. It means I can do things others won’t, go places that others can’t. But you and Clark _can_ curb my darker impulses to a degree, and I want you to. But just know there are some who you will never talk me out of killing. Some people just _need_ to die. Damien Darhk is one of those people.”

Bruce gave a noncommittal grunt. He wasn’t about to start an argument on this front when he knew his only real ally in the room was Clark. Everyone else, even Laurel Lance, acknowledged there were some threats that needed a, as Oliver put it, permanent solution.

“Questions?” Oliver asked.

“I couldn’t help but notice that Ra’s al Ghul seems to terrify you,” Diana said. “Why?”

“Because of all of the enemies I faced, Ra’s al Ghul _is_ the most terrifying,” Oliver said. “All of my other enemies, aside from Darhk, were driven by vengeance of some kind or another. Darhk was driven by egomania and a desire to recreate the world in his own image. But Ra’s… Ra’s is like me. He sees what he does as his duty to maintain the balance between good and evil. He gets no joy from what he does, just grim satisfaction at a job well done, if that.”

“If Ra’s is so terrifying, why don’t we just remove the threat?” Hal asked professionally.

“Because the League of Assassins is critical to keeping the Crisis from happening sooner,” Oliver replied. “They were founded to keep the Anti-Monitor locked away by keeping the balance between good and evil. Without them, the balance grows out of control, and the Anti-Monitor is released sooner than 2024. Whether we like it or not… the League is a necessary evil.”

“I don’t like it,” Bruce said flatly. “What about Ra’s running out of time? How does that factor into your equation?”

“The only thing I can think of is that we do what I did in the last timeline,” Oliver replied. “One of us challenges him to single combat, wins, kills him, and then chooses a successor. I firmly believe the only viable candidate is my old teacher, Ra’s’ eldest daughter, Talia. She has the training and the experience necessary to run the League of Assassins. She also knows something of the world outside Nanda Parbat. By comparison, Nyssa is quite sheltered and, if I’m being frank, doesn’t have the training necessary to maintain her role as Ra’s if she were to be made Ra’s.” **_*4*_**

“How does Darhk plan to unleash a nuclear Armageddon on the world?” Hal asked.

“Amanda Waller had a program developed called Rubicon which gave her control over any nuclear missile in the world,” Oliver replied. “Ostensibly, it was intended to be used to shut down said missiles in their silos so that they couldn’t be used at all, but Darhk reversed its programming. And, unfortunately, we’re not going to be able to stop it the same way my team did last time if this happens again.”

“Why?” Laurel asked.

“Because the people who stopped all but one of the nukes from landing were Felicity Smoak and her father,” Oliver replied. “Felicity is dead and her father probably isn’t too happy with me since she was working for me when The Huntsman killed her.”

“I can get my tech agent on it,” Bruce said. “Oracle is by far the best hacker I’ve ever known. I’m sure Miss Smoak was good, but I’d wager Oracle is better than she was.” There was a distinct pride in Bruce’s voice as he spoke of Oracle, and Oliver would be the first to admit that what he said was probably true. After all, he had _heard_ of Oracle by the time they were fighting Darhk, and that was why he hadn’t given Felicity that particular codename, instead going for Overwatch.

“Wait… Ollie… you said you stopped all but _one_ of the nukes,” Laurel said, and the rest of the Justice League frowned as they recalled that. “Where did it land? Please tell me it hit in the ocean or was diverted to some out of the way area that could be cordoned off.”

“I wish I could,” Oliver said. “The one nuke that we didn’t get was aimed for Monument Point. Felicity did her best to divert it in time, but… it landed in Havenrock. 10,000 people died that day.” Oliver looked at them bleakly, locking eyes with a stricken-looking Clark. “If ever there was a time the world could’ve used Superman, it was then. I don’t mean to be cruel, Clark. I just…”

“I understand, Oliver,” Clark said. “I don’t know _why_ I would stand by and do nothing when the world faced that kind of threat. The only things I can think of is my fear overwhelmed everything else… or someone had found out about me and found a way to contain me. Those are the only two reasons I can think of for why I wouldn’t have risked exposure to save innocent lives.”

“So, Amanda Waller is the one who develops Rubicon?” Diana asked.

“Yes,” Oliver replied. “I don’t know how far along that project is right now. But even if A.R.G.U.S. isn’t working on it, I would bet that H.I.V.E. is working on their own version, just in case. That’s simply the kind of man Darhk was. He would’ve only used the one developed by A.R.G.U.S. to sow confusion about who was behind it all.”

“What about this ark he built?” Arthur asked. “Where was it located?”

“It was located under the Glades in Starling City,” Oliver replied. “Part of Darhk’s plan is to make himself essentially a god by drawing power from the deaths of the entire world through an idol he has in his possession. It’s what gives him such strong magic. Starling City is one of the few mystical convergences in the world where he can draw that kind of energy.”

“So, egomania, delusions of godhood, and plans on massacring the world?” Hal asked. “Yeah, that sounds like something we should deal with, all right.”

“Agreed,” Diana said tightly. Out of all of them, she had been alive when the Hiroshima bomb dropped and had seen the Cold War that followed World War II. That someone would do something like this… it had to be stopped.

Arthur nodded his agreement. Nuclear Armageddon would poison the Earth’s oceans as much as the surface. And now that Atlantis was exposed to the world, Darhk _had_ to be factoring that into his equations and would target the ocean as much as the surface world.

“Are there any other mystical convergences like Starling City?” Bruce asked intently.

“The only other one I know of for sure is Lian Yu, the island where I was stranded,” Oliver replied. “It’s where I first encountered the idol that Darhk draws his power from. I don’t know how it got into his possession since I handed it off to A.R.G.U.S.”

“Something to look into,” Bruce said grimly. “If the idol is still in A.R.G.U.S. custody, then they should be made aware that H.I.V.E. will make an attempt for it. If we can negate Darhk’s magic before he ever has it, it lowers his threat level considerably.”

“Agreed,” Oliver said. “I’ll approach Amanda when I can about the idol’s current status, mask it as expressing concern about it being used by other parties.”

“Anything else you think we need to know about H.I.V.E. and Darhk?” Arthur asked.

“I think I’ve covered everything of importance,” Oliver said. “Unfortunately, I don’t know much about the inner workings of H.I.V.E. that we could use if or when they come calling.”

“Something I’ll see if I can’t get Oracle to dig into, as well,” Bruce said after a moment. “The first rule of any battle is to know thy enemy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* This is just my head-canon for why we never see Slade again after the Deathstroke two-parter. It helps that Joe/Kane *was* wearing Slade’s armor, since he didn’t have it before and it was supposed to be one of a kind, stolen by Slade from A.S.I.S.
> 
> *2* I covered this in the notes in Chapter 1 or 2 of “Rise”, but in my head-canon, Oliver did in fact *die* in 3x09 and he was resurrected by Tatsu using magicks from the Crimson Order or whatever it’s called. I’d almost say Maseo had a sample of LP water on him, but Oliver never showed any side effects, so…
> 
> *3* Since Talia and Nyssa both exist, it makes sense to me Dusan does, as well, and Bruce, being Bruce, would know about him.
> 
> *4* I know Nyssa is everyone’s favorite, but looked at objectively, Talia is the better option if the JL ever have to supplant the current Ra’s with one of his daughters.


	46. Coming Clean, Part 3

“Alright, so what’s the next big threat?” Laurel asked.

“The next threat happened concurrently with H.I.V.E. and was faced by Barry Allen, or The Flash,” Oliver replied. “What I know is only second-hand through Barry, but I’ll tell you what I can. The threat was a speedster from another universe who called himself Zoom. He pretended to be an ally of Barry’s, Jay Garrick, before being exposed. He eventually got the bright idea in his head to conquer Earth-1, our Earth, and destroy the rest of the multiverse. Earth-1 is the central hub to the entire multiverse. Which, now that I think about it, must mean that whatever weapon the Anti-Monitor was using to wipe out universes must’ve been based on Earth-1. Because of what he planned to do, Zoom ranks just below the Anti-Monitor in terms of pure evil.” 

“How did he plan to conquer Earth-1?” Diana asked.

“Zoom had an army of metahumans at his command,” Oliver replied. “He brought them over and they were running roughshod over the Central City Police Department, even took control of the precinct where Barry worked. There were many doppelgangers of people Team Flash knew, including of themselves, who were some of Zoom’s top lieutenants.” Oliver met Laurel’s green eyes. “Including Earth-2’s Dinah Laurel Lance. Or, as she was known, Black Siren.”

“She had the same powers as Laurel?” Hal asked.

“Yes, and she used them to bring down buildings in Central City,” Oliver said. Laurel turned a sickly color at hearing that. Oliver hadn’t told her much about her doppelganger. How had she gone from _that_ to being a hero? Laurel was beginning to understand why Oliver had had such a hard time seeing _her_ in the other Laurel. “I won’t defend her actions, but Black Siren _did_ eventually change and become a hero in her own right,” Oliver added. “I finally began to see something of the Laurel I know in her during missions we undertook together for the Monitor.” Oliver shook his head. “Anyways, Barry and his team did something with vibrational frequencies to knock out all Earth-2 natives and then locked them up in the metahuman prison built into the pipeline at S.T.A.R. Labs.”

“Vibrational frequencies?” Bruce asked.

“Something about how people from another Earth vibrate at a different frequency than people from our own Earth,” Oliver said. “It was all very technical and my mind kind of went blank whenever Barry started techno-babbling.” Laurel grinned at that because that did sound like Oliver. He never was much of one for studying. Bruce grunted, unimpressed with the Emerald Archer’s lack of attention to the minute but important details.

“How bad was it for the C.C.P.D.?” Clark asked.

“Zoom killed their entire S.W.A.T. division when it was getting ready to storm the precinct and take it back from the metahuman army,” Oliver replied. “From what Barry said, he used a similar tactic on Earth-2 to cow that Earth’s Central City into compliance.”

“How did Zoom come to know about Earth-1 to begin with?” Bruce asked.

“In the original timeline, Thawne tricked Barry into opening a time portal with his speed, and that eventually created a singularity that served as a rip between the two Earths,” Oliver replied. “But according to Barry, Zoom already knew about the multiverse. So, I bring up Zoom because he’s a potential threat that we _could_ end up dealing with if he gets bored with lording over Earth-2 and decides to expand his ‘empire’ to the rest of the multiverse.”

“Fair enough,” Hal said. “Anything else happen concurrent with H.I.V.E. that we should worry about?”

“Not anything that isn’t already being taken care of,” Oliver said. “I have a team of heroes working on ensuring the Council of Time Masters can never be a threat again and that their machinations are for naught.”

“This is the mission you sent Dick on?” Bruce asked.

“Yep,” Oliver said.

“What mission?” Hal asked. “Who are the Council of Time Masters? What were their machinations?”

“The Council of Time Masters is an organization that has essentially been controlling the fates of mankind throughout the centuries,” Oliver replied. “They manipulate the timeline to follow a path that they’ve decided is the most favorable. They chose Vandal Savage, an immortal tyrant, as their champion to ‘save’ humanity from an invasion in 2266. Of course, Savage would only be saving that which he didn’t destroy himself in his conquest of the planet. When I killed Malcolm and stopped the Undertaking, I saved 502 lives along with Tommy Merlyn’s, and all of those 502 people were either people who went on to do things that rendered Savage pointless and kept the planet safe from the invasion in 2266, or their descendants did the same. The Council wasn’t happy that they had been essentially rendered obsolete and decided to correct that by hiring the Ninth Circle to kill the 502 people who died in the Undertaking. My team managed to stop most of their attacks, and when Atlantis was revealed, the Ninth Circle folded and backed out of their contract. Now, all that’s left is for the Legends to stop the Council’s own machinations in favor of Savage and, once that’s done, destroy the device that gives them the ability to manipulate the timeline and control the destinies of humanity.”

Once again, the Justice League found themselves slowly trying to digest exactly what it was that Oliver had sent a special team to deal with.

Bruce Wayne would admit that he felt a distinct pride in his protégé, Dick Grayson, for being among those who were fighting such an important battle. The idea that some force had decided they alone had the right to control the fates of mankind was galling, had been when he first heard about it from Dick, and knowing that Dick was helping to stop that gave Bruce a great deal of pride in his protégé.

Diana Prince was shocked. Someone had been controlling the fates of mankind for centuries? Her mind couldn’t help but wonder if her half-brother had some degree of involvement with this Council of Time Masters. That sort of grand manipulation of people and events was right up Ares’ alley, and it would be in a way that Diana could never have predicted.

Arthur Curry was grim as he listened to Oliver tell them about the Council of Time Masters. His mind rebelled at the thought that his life had in some way been controlled by this Council, but he knew that as a pivotal figure in the world stage at this moment, he likely _had_ suffered such manipulations without even knowing it. It was not a realization he liked to consider.

Hal Jordan had to admit that he hadn’t expected any of this when he came to this meeting, but now they were here, and he couldn’t help but wonder if anything in his life had been manipulated by these Time Masters. His hands gripped into fists at the thought that they might have even played a hand in his becoming a Green Lantern. No, he had _chosen_ that of his own free will! You couldn’t be forced into becoming a Lantern, you either were one or you weren’t! No one could control that, not even these Time Masters!

Clark Kent felt a cold chill go up his spine. Something told him he had finally discovered what had kept him from stepping into the light in the last timeline. The Council. It must have been them. There was no other explanation for him not helping stop so many things. H.I.V.E., Zoom, the Crisis… All of it were things he would have gotten involved in. _Damn them,_ Clark thought to himself. _Damn them all._

Laurel Lance had known this beforehand, but it still gave her the chills to hear her boyfriend talk about the organization that had controlled their fates. She couldn’t help but wonder if it was the Time Masters who had decreed that she was to die at Darhk’s hands at age thirty. She clenched her jaw at the thought. She decided her fate, no one else, and she was so very happy that her sister was going to be one of those to kick these bastards in the teeth and leave them unable to manipulate anything for the rest of their lives.

“So, you already have a team dealing with these guys?” Hal asked finally.

“Yes,” Oliver replied.

“And the Ninth Circle? Are they a threat we should be worried about?” Bruce asked.

“Potentially,” Oliver admitted. “One of their leaders more or less told me that they’re slinking back into the shadows to adapt to the changing world order, but once they’ve adapted to all of the changes, I suspect they’ll come back with a vengeance. And Starling City will probably be one of their targets because of the interference that my team and I have put up against them. They’re worse than the League of Assassins in that they manipulate wars and events for their own profit.”

“Then we’ll keep an eye out for them,” Arthur said. “I can imagine they would think they could profit quite a bit from a war between the surface world and Atlantis or Xebel.”

“They’re insidious enough that they could embed agents in a diplomatic detachment to Atlantis,” Oliver agreed.

“So, that’s an army of super-soldiers, the League of Assassins, H.I.V.E., and this Council of Time Masters,” Hal said. “We’ll assume the Legends, as you call them, are going to succeed in their mission. That still leaves three potential threats. Any more that you can think of?”

“Oh, yeah,” Oliver said. “Sorry, but my life was full of crazy even before Mar-Novu sent my consciousness back through time.”

“What’s next, then?” Clark asked.

“Dominators,” Oliver said grimly. Clark and Hal instantly grimaced. The others looked confused.

“What are Dominators?” Diana asked.

“A race of hostile aliens that previously visited Earth in the 1950’s,” Oliver replied. “Supposedly, the U.S. government made some kind of arrangement with them that had them leave us alone. I don’t know what it was. But something happened during my fifth year as a vigilante that had them coming.”

“What happened?” Hal asked grimly.

“Well, their _stated_ reason was because Barry had changed the timeline, but I never really bought that excuse,” Oliver replied. “From what Kara told me about the Dominators at a later date, they’re slavers. Is that right?” He directed this question mostly at Hal.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Hal said grimly. “Remember when I said Earth has a reputation in the stars? Well, it’s not a good one. Someone on this rock made a deal with the Dominators. They would provide slave stock for the Dominators to sell, and in return, the Dominators don’t come en masse to enslave the entire planet, ‘cull’ the human herd.”

“What was your theory based on what Kara told you?” Clark asked.

“That a metahuman had been among those who were ‘culled’ for slavery, probably from among the homeless population, and they had done something to give hope to the slave stock,” Oliver replied. “The Dominators would have questioned whoever it was thoroughly before killing them or questioned the slaves who survived where this slave got the idea to stand up to them. Both paths would have led to them realizing that Barry was an inspiration to people. His changing the timeline, however tragic some of the outcomes were, were just an excuse for them that would be easier to swallow. The fact is, they came to Earth to wipe out every single metahuman, not just Barry Allen.” Laurel stiffened at that. “They already had a ‘meta bomb’ ready to go. My guess is they would’ve taken Barry and tortured him to death while dropping the meta bomb on the world, then enslaved what was left of the population.” **_*1*_**

“What exactly did Barry Allen do with his change to the timeline?” Bruce asked shrewdly.

_Of course, he would have to ask that,_ Oliver thought grimly. “Barry went back in time and saved his mother from dying, creating an alternate timeline that he called Flashpoint,” Oliver replied. “He lived in that timeline for a few months before something happened that made him reverse what happened. But when he got back, certain things were different, though personally I think some of them would’ve happened regardless of Flashpoint. The only actual changes that I know of was that his friend Iris had a contentious relationship with her father where before they had been rather close, and a baby girl had been changed into a baby boy. The other two ‘changes’ to the world that I know of were Caitlin Snow getting powers and Cisco Ramon’s brother dying in a car crash in the summer. Both of which could have already been slated to happen even without Barry changing the timeline. But… there is another factor in all of this.”

“What’s that?” Clark asked.

“Me,” Oliver said. “When I returned to Star City, as it was known then, I decided I wanted to be a hero like Barry, and so I ignored my training, ignored all of the warning signs, was even so foolish as to put Darhk’s idol back together because I wanted to confirm that it was the same idol had dealt with before, entrusting a piece of the idol to John Diggle to hide instead of having Barry scatter the pieces across the globe. I wanted to believe I could be a hero in the light of day the way Barry was, and I did everything I could to move toward that goal. I made incredibly selfish choices, and Barry looked up to me. So, when he saw I was willing to make selfish choices, he felt he had the right to, as well. Mar-Novu told me when he gave me this second chance that that was why Barry, who had refused to change the timeline just one year previously, created Flashpoint. He saw the man he looked up to as a hero make selfish decisions and followed his example. Which is why everything I have done in this new timeline has been with the mentality of ‘the needs of the many’. I cannot let the personal cost of what I’ve chosen to do affect my decision making so that no hero who follows after me will be tempted to make the same sort of selfish choices that Barry did in the last timeline.”

“We’re getting slightly off-topic,” Hal said. “What did you do to drive the Dominators back?”

“Something we can’t do in this timeline,” Oliver replied. “In the last timeline, Professor Martin Stein was a Legend, and he met his younger self at one point and gave him some advice that led to him having a daughter, Lily. It was their working in tandem that led to the creation of a device that caused the Dominators extreme pain. Without Lily, we’ll need to find some other way to defeat the Dominators when they come, and I have no doubt that they _will_ come. The Justice League is more inspiring than Barry was, and they _will_ want to get rid of us. They will come up with some excuse. For all we know, they somehow know that I’ve traversed time as well and will use that as the excuse for coming in force. And if they do come in force, I firmly believe it will be in greater numbers than a single mothership like it was the last time, because the Justice League represents a greater threat than The Flash alone did.”

“How did you keep the Dominators distracted while you ‘tagged’ them with these devices Martin and Lily Stein created?” Bruce asked.

“The Legends, Barry’s team, and my team all came together along with Earth-38’s Kara Danvers, or Supergirl as she was called, and fought the Dominators on a rooftop in downtown Central City,” Oliver replied. “But that was the final battle. First, the Dominators tried to divide and conquer by mind-controlling most of the heroes. The only ones who weren’t mind-controlled were Barry and I. Barry’s Flashpoint had been revealed and the others didn’t take it well. I was the only one who stuck by Barry because I understood his decision, at the time, anyways. So, Barry and I were forced to fight our teams plus Supergirl until we found a way to destroy the source of the mind control, which Barry found and then tricked Supergirl into crashing into. Then the Dominators abducted most of the non-powered heroes, myself included, and tried to comb our minds for intelligence while keeping us trapped in a ‘perfect dream world’. I’ll admit, a part of me wanted to stay there indefinitely. It was very tempting.” Oliver’s eyes went to Laurel, who smiled sadly, remembering what he had told her about the Dominator dream world. “We eventually escaped the dream world. That’s when the Dominators stepped things up and had their human allies approach us. I refused to consider the ‘deal’ offered and rallied the other heroes to stand with Barry despite their problems with Flashpoint.”

“You believe we will face the Dominators in this timeline?” Diana asked.

“I do,” Oliver said. “I don’t know when. It took three years of Barry’s heroics before someone actually did something that caught their attention. But as I said before, the Justice League is more inspiring, especially since our battle against the Trench was caught on camera, as were our separate fights in Gotham. If more of our actions are caught on camera, that will make us all the more legendary in people’s minds, and that will probably lead to a faster inspiration of the ‘slave stock’. Personally, I want to find wherever it is the human allies of the Dominators are gathering people to send to the Dominators and put an end to it. It might bring the Dominators to Earth faster, but it’s the right thing to do. The only problem I foresee is the fact that it _is_ a government division doing this and that could cause problems with the President if the Justice League take action that disrupts the balance of power with the Dominators.”

“Something we should still consider doing, though,” Hal said. “I, for one, am sickened that Earth is equated with slavery to the denizens of the stars.”

“Well, first we’d have to find where this is happening before we could stop it,” Bruce said. “We have other concerns for the moment, such as Zod and his army. But the Dominators are definitely something we should concern ourselves with, especially if they’re taking the homeless population and selling them into slavery.”

“Anything else you can think of about the Dominator invasion that we should know about?” Diana asked.

“Just that the president wasn’t Trumbull, so I’m assuming that one of the timeline changes Barry or the Legends made changed the outcome of this past election,” Oliver replied. “And the Dominators will target the president, especially if that president supports the Justice League.”

“Any other Justice League-level threats that happened that year, because of Flashpoint or some other reason?” Bruce asked.

“There are two I can think of,” Oliver said, “though one of them slowly tapered off into just a personal threat to Barry. Savitar. A Time Remnant, or copy, of Barry himself who had become twisted and evil. Savitar initially tried to create a metahuman army, but then he focused entirely on killing Iris West, who was Barry’s girlfriend and then fiancé at the time. The other threat I can think of is what Sara and the Legends dealt with that year.”

“Which was?” Hal prompted.

“The Spear of Destiny,” Oliver replied. “It allows the one who knows how to use it to rewrite reality itself. That year, a group of super-villains decided they wanted to rewrite reality: Eobard Thawne, Malcolm Merlyn, and Damien Darhk. In the end, they _did_ rewrite reality, and the Legends were faced with choosing the lesser of two evils: either let the villains win and accept the new reality as _the only reality_ , or break one of the fundamental rules of time travel and go back in time to a time where they were already present, risking a paradox. They ended up breaking time as a result, but they did stop the villains from succeeding. Sara de-powered the Spear… with a little help from Laurel.”

“From me?” Laurel asked in surprise. “But I was dead, right?”

“Sara told me she thinks the Spear let you and her have a final conversation, and in that conversation, you helped her realize she couldn’t use the Spear to save you, because every change to reality _harmed_ reality,” Oliver replied. “It was the only way that Sara could accept not using the spear to bring you back. Also, it fits with who you are, Laurel, that you would caution her against harming reality even more because that causes harm to the world, and you always have wanted to save the world.” **_*2*_**

“So, do you think the Spear is a potential threat in this new timeline?” Clark asked.

“I do,” Oliver confirmed. “The world is changing and people like Darhk and H.I.V.E. are finding themselves now having to face a reality where Atlantis is active in the world again and an alien flies around saving people, among other things. Someone, somewhere might get the idea to use the Spear and rewrite reality itself. I’m sure we’ll get warning on that front, though, from Rip Hunter, the Time Master with a conscience whose leading the Legends against the Council.”

“We’ll have to keep an eye on our enemies, just in case,” Bruce said grimly.

“Agreed,” Diana said. “I can think of at least one enemy I’ve faced who would love to change reality. My half-brother, Ares.”

“As in the Greek god of war?” Laurel asked.

“Yes,” Diana replied simply.

“Our lives are _so_ complicated now,” Laurel said with a sigh.

“So, what was next, if anything?” Hal asked. “Because Dominators and villains wanting to change reality, that’s got to be the top, right?”

“Next up is something that we all found very disturbing for many reasons,” Oliver replied. “Barry and Iris’ wedding, which all of the heroes had been invited to, was attacked by Nazis.”

“Time travel issue?” Bruce asked.

“No,” Oliver replied. “Dimensional travel. They came from what’s designated as Earth-X in the multiverse. It’s an Earth where the Nazis were the first to complete an atomic bomb and used it to assert their dominance over the world. Earth-X is ruled by Nazis.”

Once again, the Justice League found themselves digesting a harsh reality, this one being that there was a world out there ruled by Nazis.

Bruce Wayne couldn’t imagine a world ruled by Nazis. The very idea was anathema to him as a Jew, even if he wasn’t a practicing one. The Nazis were human monsters beyond the imagining of what he faced every day. He would need to find out why they had come to Earth-1. More importantly, he needed to begin finding a way to build something that could monitor the multiverse so that they had forewarning about these kinds of threats. Zoom, now Earth-X, how many more enemies could come from another universe if they didn’t have a system in place to _monitor_ the multiverse? Bruce noted, somewhat idly, that Nazis were probably one of those few occasions where he wouldn’t hold back, because they were _Nazis_.

Diana Prince’s stomach clenched. She had _lived_ through World War II, had seen the atrocities heaped upon the world by the Nazi regime, and to think there was a world out there where those monsters had _won_ , where they ruled with an iron fist… she shuddered at the very thought. She knew that the Justice League should be focused on threats from _this_ world, but surely there was something they could do for the people there? Surely there was something that could be done to break the hold the Nazis had on Earth-X? As it was, they _would_ need to do something if the Earth-X Nazis came to Earth-1 in this timeline. Diana swore that she would be ready for them.

Laurel’s hand had gone to her mouth at Oliver’s words. Her mind flashed back to history class in high school, when they had learned the depth of the atrocities of the Nazi regime. The idea that there was a world out there where those atrocities were ongoing, and the idea that they could come _here_ and try to begin that war all over again… Laurel shuddered, and Diana put a comforting and understanding hand on the younger woman’s shoulder. The two women drew comfort from one another, both knowing they would fight to the last breath to keep the Nazis of Earth-X from achieving whatever goal they had set for themselves, be it conquest or something else entirely.

Clark Kent took off his glasses for a moment, tears shining in his eyes as he thought of the suffering that the citizens of Earth-X must be suffering under the cruel hand of the Nazi regime, that they had been suffering for over 60 years at this point, if time went by in the Nazi world the same as it had in this world. Though, of course, on a Nazi world, the calendar had probably been changed from B.C./A.D. or B.C.E./C.E. to reflect the triumph of the Nazis. Clark knew that if they came to Earth-1, he would fight them with everything that he had. Nazis were probably among the very few enemies he would accept killing because they were _Nazis_.

Arthur Curry was grim at the idea of an invasion from an Earth ruled by Nazis. Those monsters would see the existence of Atlantis as an abomination and seek to eradicate his people. If the Earth-X attack happened in this timeline, he would stand with his friends and allies against this threat.

Hal Jordan was grim as he imagined a world where the Nazis had won. The very idea of a world run by Nazis horrified him, and angered him, because the Nazis were _monsters_ and any world that they ruled over would be a bleak one, one without hope. He imagined that hope was in short supply if it did exist, and if it did, it only existed in whatever resistance might exist to fight the Nazis of Earth-X. If they came here, he vowed, they would find they had a fight on their hands.

Finally, after nearly five minutes of awful silence during which the Justice League wrapped their minds around the sheer horror of an Earth ruled by Nazis, Bruce spoke. “Why did they come?” he asked flatly.

“Because one of their leaders, Overgirl, was dying,” Oliver said, turning his blue-eyed gaze to meet Clark’s. “Like Icarus, she flew too close to the sun. She needed a heart transplant. And at that time, there just happened to be a hero on Earth-1, who was there for the wedding, who was a perfect match.”

“No,” Clark instantly said, his gut roiling as his mind flashed to the little girl with blonde hair and innocent blue eyes that was currently back in Metropolis with Lois, still adjusting to life on Earth and finding her place in this new, strange, terrifying world. A world that was all the more terrifying to Clark now that he knew there was a major threat aimed at his cousin that didn’t come from Zod or Astra. “I won’t let it happen! She’s just a little girl!” Clark slammed his hand down on the table in front of him, which shattered and collapsed to the ground. “I won’t let them have her! They’ll have to get her over my cooling corpse!”

“Clark, what is it? What’s wrong?” Diana asked in concern. Laurel had already realized what was being left unsaid, and her hands had both shot to her mouth, her green eyes filling with tears as she imagined that bubbly little girl in Metropolis being hunted by Nazis.

“My cousin is like me, she gets her powers from a yellow sun,” Clark said. “What Oliver is saying is that a twisted version of her from Earth-X soaked up too much radiation from the sun, somehow, and she needed a heart transplant. And the Supergirl Oliver knew was a perfect match. But I’m guessing the likelihood of us having visitors from other Earths is low right now.” Oliver nodded to show he agreed with that. “Which means if the Earth-Xers come, and there’s no reason they wouldn’t since those circumstances will be the same, they’ll be coming for my cousin. She’s just thirteen right now. Oliver, when did this happen?”

“Five years from now,” Oliver replied.

“She’ll be seventeen, nearly eighteen,” Clark said bleakly. “She’ll just be starting to really live her life. I won’t let them have her!”

“None of us will, Clark,” Laurel said compassionately. “Kara is a beautiful little girl, and she doesn’t deserve such terror. If these bastards come for her again, they’ll face the entire Justice League. They won’t get to Kara.”

“They won’t,” Hal agreed.

“I will allow no harm to come to a child,” Arthur vowed.

“We will face them together, as a team,” Diana said.

“We’ll keep her safe, Clark,” Bruce said grimly. “These Nazis won’t be allowed to have her.”

“As far as I’m concerned, the Kara here is just a younger version of my friend,” Oliver said. “I won’t let them have her, especially at such a young age.”

“Thank you,” Clark said, feeling relieved. “Thank all of you.” He glanced down sheepishly at the broken table. “Sorry about losing my temper. I just…”

“We understand, Clark,” Oliver said.

“So, anything else we need to know about Earth-X? Other doppelgangers, for example?” Hal asked Oliver.

“There were plenty of doppelgangers who had familiar faces,” Oliver said. “The one who was proclaimed to be the Fuhrer… was me.” Shock twisted every face. “But I’ve thought about this a long time. On Earth-X, Hitler died in 1992, and he probably would have had a chosen successor, and that successor probably would have had to be young and strong. I wouldn’t have been of age on Earth-X in 1992. So, I believe that Fuhrer came to have a different meaning on Earth-X, that each continent or country has a Fuhrer of its own to govern and be the hands of the ‘Grand Fuhrer’. The doppelganger of Tommy Merlyn, who we captured, told me that ‘he’ would crush my skull beneath his boot, and I got the impression that this wasn’t metaphoric hyperbole. When I fought my doppelganger, I expected him to be as strong as a Mirakuru soldier. But he wasn’t. And then, the next year, I met Kara’s cousin, and I realized who was probably the ‘Grand Fuhrer’ of Earth-X.” **_*3*_**

“That is… disturbing to think about,” Clark said, looking sick at the idea that a version of him could be a Nazi.

“I would guess that all of us would have doppelgangers on Earth-X, though not all of us would be Nazis,” Oliver said. “There is a resistance, for example, and they had a few special people in their ranks. For example, among those here, I just can’t see Diana as a Nazi. But then, I couldn’t see Laurel as one, either, but later that year Earth-X’s Laurel attacked Barry and his team. So, I could be wrong. Maybe we’re _all_ Nazis on Earth-X.”

“I wouldn’t be,” Bruce said grimly. “I probably wouldn’t exist. My grandparents were in a concentration camp.”

“That might not be true,” Oliver said. “Felicity Smoak existed on that Earth, and on our Earth her grandparents were also in a concentration camp.”

“The only Jews who could survive in a world run by the Nazis are those who conspired _with_ the Nazis against their own people,” Bruce declared grimly. “Maybe that Earth’s Felicity Smoak was different from her grandparents and parents, but for her to exist, they would’ve had to have been collaborators for at least two generations, turning others who were persecuted by the Nazis over in exchange for a stay of execution.” **_*4*_**

“I hadn’t thought of it like that,” Oliver said quietly. “But I suppose you’re right. It doesn’t make sense that Felicity was alive on a world ruled by Nazis unless her family did something as awful as collaborate _with_ the Nazis.” Oliver sighed. “I guess I blinded myself to the reality of what had to have happened since I was in a relationship with Felicity on our Earth at the time.”

“Love does blind us,” Bruce acknowledged. “It isn’t your fault, Oliver.”

“So, we might have to deal with Nazi versions of ourselves when the time comes,” Hal said grimly. He sighed. “What else happened that would be a Justice League issue?”

“Only one other thing before the Crisis, and I don’t know if it’ll happen this time,” Oliver admitted.

“What was it and why do you think it won’t happen now?” Bruce asked.

“We called the event Elseworlds,” Oliver replied. “Mar-Novu, the Monitor, was testing worlds throughout the multiverse to find one that was prepared to face the Crisis. He tested Earth-1 by giving a book with the ability to rewrite reality to a man named Deegan. We beat each of Deegan’s attempts. But when Rip Hunter approached me, he told me in the future everyone knows that I was sent back through time by the Monitor to prepare the heroes of the world for the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Combine that with everything that’s been happening since I defeated Malcolm, and I can’t help but feel things like Fort Rozz crashing to Earth and the attack on Amnesty Bay are Novu manipulating events to test us the way he tested me and the others in the future. If so, I would expect many more tests to come.”

“Then we’ll have to be ready,” Bruce said grimly. “I have no more questions.” Nods went around the room, which Diana took as being enough to unwrap the Lasso of Hestia from around Oliver.

“Well, now you know everything,” Oliver said. “I have no more secrets.”

“Thank you for being willing to undergo that questioning, Oliver,” Hal said. “I know it can’t have been easy.”

“No, it wasn’t,” Oliver said. “But I think having you all know what is potentially to come is worth the emotional windmill that we’ve all gone through because of that.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* I completely reject the canon explanation that Barry time traveling caused the Dominators to suddenly take an interest in Earth. No, as far as I’m concerned, something like what happened in my one-shot “Seeds of Rebellion” was the catalyst and they just used Barry’s Flashpoint thing as an excuse.
> 
> *2* This is another head-canon of mine re: Legends and why Sara didn’t just use the fucking spear to bring Laurel back since she used it to bring the Death Flash to that location to take care of Reverse-Flash. It helps me swallow the bitter pill just a little easier re: the fact that everyone but Earth-1 Laurel gets a second chance at life. But only a little easier. Like, minutely easier.
> 
> *3* Again, major head-canon here, because it just doesn’t make sense that Hitler’s successor would be Robert Queen, and if Kara came down in a Nazi-controlled area, its likely Clark did, too. Not to mention there was the whole “he’ll crush your skull beneath his boot” threat which didn’t seem to me to be hyperbole.
> 
> *4* Okay, this is not just my dislike of Felicity shining through, though I expect certain people, if they read this, to think otherwise. The fact is that it makes no sense for Felicity, who is JEWISH, to have existed on Earth-X, especially if her grandparents had been in a concentration camp on that Earth as well (and there’s no reason to believe they weren’t in one). Therefore, I do think that the Smoaks were collaborators for at least two generations. Maybe E-X Felicity was different from her family, or maybe she was in on the ruse E-X Quentin pulled. We’ll never know.


	47. Reflections

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Okay, more than one person brought this up so I’m addressing it here. As it was explained to me, it doesn’t matter if Bruce is a practicing Jew. He has Jewish ancestry and is therefore considered a Jew by default, even if he himself doesn’t practice. I hope this answers any confusion.
> 
> This chapter marks the end of Episode 18. Episodes 19-20 are a two-parter and I will be writing both before I begin posting. I am currently about to start the fourth chapter of that arc and I expect it to be between 6-10 chapters in total. We’ll see how it goes.

Oliver Queen felt a sense of peace as he and Laurel entered the loft as evening descended over Starling City. While coming clean had been more or less forced on him by Diana’s honest nature, he couldn’t exactly deny that doing so had been the right call. Now everyone was on the same page, everyone knew _why_ the Justice League was so important, and everyone knew what was coming so they could prepare for it. “This feels a lot better than I thought it would,” Oliver told Laurel as they moved to the kitchen, where Oliver got out the steaks that had been marinating all day and got out a pan to cook them in. He pulled some seasonings from the shelves over the stove as he turned on the burner the pan was on. “So, medium well?” he directed at Laurel.

“You know me so well,” Laurel said with a smile. “So, I never asked: where did the Chef Oliver thing come from?”

“From a period in my life that I’m not too proud of,” Oliver said. “It was after I killed Ra’s al Ghul. I left town with Felicity and traveled the world on her dime, since she became C.E.O. of Palmer Technologies after Ray ‘died’ in an explosion. During that time, I was basically a ‘domesticated lion’ and I stuck with that kind of mentality until-until after Darhk killed you. While I’m glad that you appreciate my cooking, and it certainly helps in living on my own without Raisa or someone to do these things for me, for me, it’s always going to be tainted by the fact that it wasn’t with you.”

“Have you tried replacing bad memories of the old timeline with good memories of the new one?” Laurel asked as Oliver seasoned the first steak and placed it in the pan, where it began sizzling. “Like, for example, replacing the ‘bad memories’ of your time as a domesticated lion with memories of us?”

“You think it’s really that simple?” Oliver asked.

“I think that if you keep wallowing in regrets, you’ll always find something that keeps you trapped in the past,” Laurel said, coming around the counter and placing a hand on Oliver’s cheek, turning his head to face her. “Forget about the original timeline. Forget about Felicity Smoak, about Damien Darhk, about all of it. Live in the here and now, with me.”

“I’ll do my best,” Oliver said, taking her hand and kissing the palm tenderly. “Now, I should focus on these steaks so they don’t become well-done, or charcoal.” He grinned at her, and she gave a light laugh. The idea that Ollie could go from having such a serious discussion to being worried about steaks was part of the reason she loved him. To him, this was the new normal, same as her, and that they could both accept it helped her accept that she was doing the right thing in those few and far between moments where she wondered if she had done the right thing, choosing Black Canary and being disbarred as a result. **_*1*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Bruce Wayne sat at the Batcomputer, compartmentalizing everything into files he could peruse at a later date. Oliver Queen’s revelations about the years to come, about the potential _threats_ that the world faced, had been eye-opening and allowed him to fully understand the enigma that was Oliver Queen. Oliver had always seemed too prepared, too on top of everything to not have something giving him the edge, like a soothsayer or something. Now, Bruce knew what that edge was. Oliver had lived his life before, was probably the most experienced hero on the planet outside of Diana, who had shied away from the world after Steve Trevor sacrificed himself according to the article in the _Daily Planet_. He understood Oliver’s reluctance to share that with the rest, and respected Oliver’s willingness to do so in the face of Bruce accepting the power of Diana’s lasso. It was quite the story, and yet, it was all true. It all fit together to explain the enigma of Oliver Queen.

Bruce turned the revelations over in his mind. The Mirakuru army issue, at least, was already being planned for on how to effectively neuter that issue; all they had to do was capture Wilson and find a way to contain him. Ra’s seeking an Heir, no matter the cost, as the effectiveness of the Lazarus Pit waned made sense. H.I.V.E.’s connection to the League of Assassins was something Bruce had been peripherally aware of due to his own time with serving under Ra’s, but the true depth of Damien Darhk’s plans and depravity unnerved Bruce. He should have asked Oliver why he hadn’t stepped in and had Oracle help them against Darhk. He should have. But perhaps he was afraid to find out his own future? He could imagine that a world without Ra’s al Ghul would be very different and could have seen some of Ra’s’ most loyal followers hounding him to bring down the usurper, Malcolm Merlyn, and take his rightful place. He didn’t want to know what happened to his city if that was the case. He had the feeling that before they worked together in Starling City, Oliver had never before laid eyes on him.

Some of the threats faced were more fantastical, but Diana’s lasso had forced the truth of his identity from him, so he knew the depth of its power, and Oliver hadn’t hesitated in speaking his answers, hadn’t fought the power of the lasso. He had wanted the Justice League to know that what he said was the truth. And some of those possibilities, Bruce would admit to himself, scared the hell out of him. Metahumans that wanted to wipe out the multiverse and conquer their world. Aliens that wanted to enslave mankind. The Spear of Destiny. Nazis from another Earth out to conquer their world as they already had Earth-X. The Crisis on Infinite Earths. So many issues, and yet who knew how many other things could crop up since the Crisis wouldn’t take place for another twelve years or thereabouts? Especially in a world where the Justice League existed, and people would be seeking to counter them? It was up to Bruce to figure out a counter to those counters ahead of time.

_Ra’s… Darhk… Aliens… supervillains messing with the fabric of reality… megalomaniacal metahumans from other worlds… Nazis from other worlds… tests by cosmic beings…_ These were the threats of the new world order, and it was up to Bruce to be prepared for all of them. This was going to take a lot of work. **_*2*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Clark Kent smiled as he watched Lois brush Kara’s hair before bedtime, feeling content despite the revelations of the day. The world was still spinning on it’s axis and would remain so as far as Clark was concerned. The threats Oliver had faced in the future, while dire, had been faced without the Justice League, just disparate groups of heroes who banded together out of convenience, rather than having _chosen_ to stand as champions for the world. And in Clark’s mind, the existence of the Justice League, the involvement in the world of himself, Hal, Diana, and Arthur, the sheer foreknowledge that Oliver had provided them with changed everything and would be the way they conquered their enemies in the future, be they enemies Oliver had fought before or new threats that rose due to the prominence of the Justice League.

Still, the sheer scope of Oliver’s life prior to this new timeline was hard to imagine. The things he had seen, the things he had done, and to be willing to do it all over again, to face that daunting future on his own if need be as he had been prepared to do, were humbling to Clark. He knew, intellectually, that the Justice League would face these threats with the same determination that Oliver had, but it still astounded Clark that Oliver had done all of this before, and was willing to do all of it again for the sake of forging a better future for the entire world, if not the entire universe.

“You okay?” Lois asked concernedly from where she was still brushing Kara’s hair, the young girl humming a Kryptonian lullaby of some kind.

“Yeah, just thinking about the meeting,” Clark said with a smile. “I wish I could tell you more about what was discussed, but, as Oliver would say, it’s not my secret to tell. But I’ll talk to him, see if I can’t convince him to let me tell you. It’s a very amazing story, though neither of us will be able to write about it.”

“I can wait,” Lois said. “Oh, by the way, the invitations arrived at the office for us to go attend the gala the President is throwing to celebrate the Justice League’s victory. Which is good, because I have something I have to talk to Oliver and Laurel about.”

“Oh?” Clark asked. “What’s that?”

“There’s a third side of the mob war story that I haven’t gotten, but if I want to make this book as objective as possible, I need to get other positions from the parties involved, at least as much as I can. I’ve been stonewalled by the Russian and Chinese embassies, our own country’s intelligence services, and the Australians, with the only ones willing to talk doing so under the cover of anonymity. I need to give another viewpoint on something big, and since Tommy Merlyn vanished off the face of the Earth and Thea Queen had very little to do with Oliver’s crusade against her biological father, the only major thing I have a chance of getting more about everything is if I talk to Anatoli Knyasev about Oliver’s time in Russia and about the mob war.”

“Anatoli Knyasev, the Pakhan of the Bratva?” Clark asked. “Lois, he’s locked away in Slabside, and he’s probably not going to be very happy talking about what happened with Oliver. Not to mention Slabside is full of people who Oliver and Laurel have put away, people who know just how praising we were of Oliver’s work as Green Arrow for those two months. That’s a lot of people who could end up gunning for you if they get word you’re coming.”

“I love that you’re worried about me, Clark, but this is important,” Lois said. “I have to do this.”

“So, why do you need to talk to Oliver and Laurel? Just giving them the heads-up that you’re planning on talking with Knyasev?” Clark asked.

“No,” Lois said. “See, I knew you’d be worried, and I think you would worry less if I convinced Oliver and Laurel to come with me. I think Knyasev might say more with Oliver and Laurel right there than I could get if I went on my own.”

“That might just present even more of a target,” Clark said. “One of the Justice League’s biggest press contacts, Oliver, and Laurel all together in one place, in a prison that houses some of the worst criminals they put away, including all of Tempest and the Huntsman? I don’t know, Lois. That might be too tempting for someone not to try something.”

“I’m sure Oliver and Laurel could handle anything that came their way, and I can handle myself, too,” Lois reminded Clark. “Listen, this is pretty much the last thing that I have to do to get this book ready. I’ve got pretty much everything Oliver’s told me written up. All I need to do is get Knyasev’s side of things about Kovar and the mob war in Starling, and then I can send this manuscript off to the publisher. They want it done ASAP, but I know it’ll take a while to get clearance for just me to go to Slabside to talk to Knyasev, much less Oliver, Laurel, and I.”

“Alright, I’ll back you on this, as long as Oliver and Laurel agree to go along,” Clark said. “I’ll feel comfortable knowing that you’re going to have them at your side.”

“Thanks, Clark,” Lois said, beaming.

**_*DC*_ **

Hal Jordan sat in his apartment, sipping a glass of whiskey on the rocks. He _needed_ a drink after what Oliver had told them all tonight. Hal didn’t doubt the power of Diana’s lasso, and he believed Oliver was being truthful. While the Guardians and the Corps couldn’t do much about some of those threats, like those coming from alternate Earths, they _could_ do something about the Dominators and the Crisis, when it came. All they needed was a warning.

The sheer scope of what was facing them in the future boggled Hal’s mind. Armies of super-soldiers from a serum from the 1940s, The League of Assassins, H.I.V.E., Zoom, the Spear of Destiny, Dominators, Nazis from a parallel Earth… And there was no guarantee that those things would happen the same way again, except the Dominators and the Nazis. Hal was grimly satisfied that the Justice League would be dealing with the Dominators when the time came. It was going to be so satisfying kicking those bastards in the teeth when the time came and removing their influence from Earth. What Oliver had speculated about the Dominators rang true in Hal’s head, and like Oliver had said, the Justice League was more inspiring than one metahuman hero would’ve been, which meant it likely that the Dominators would come in force. Which meant this sector needed more Green Lanterns, for both the Dominators _and_ the Crisis.

Hal knew when he reported to Oa about all of this that things were going to get kicked into high gear. The Guardians wouldn’t balk at the idea of someone having knowledge of a possible future, nor would they falter in defending the universe from the likes of the Dominators and the Anti-Monitor. That was what the Corps existed to do, to stand against such fantastical threats and protect the universe from their evil. He mused to himself over who from Earth would find themselves called to be a Green Lantern, if any more Lanterns were pulled from Earth’s population. Maybe he should ask Oliver if he could think of any candidates to propose to the Guardians, at the very least.

Hal sipped at his whiskey, allowing the alcohol to burn its way down his throat. While he had seen a lot of extraordinary things, he had to admit that Oliver traveling through time was one of the strangest things he had heard in his career as a Green Lantern. He wondered what exactly it was about Oliver that had made the Monitor (a being which was only rumored about among the Corps) choose Oliver as his agent of change.

Maybe, one day, Hal could ask the Monitor himself. **_*3*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Diana Prince leaned back in her first-class seat, looking out the window at the darkening sky and ignoring the appreciative looks coming from men and women alike, along with the looks of recognition as people realized who was sitting among them. She had known that Oliver had faced a great threat in the Crisis thanks to previously questioning him in Paris, but the world had more threats facing it than Diana could possibly imagine. But in the end, all she and the others could do was be prepared to answer the call when it came, to defend the world against threats beyond their imagining. She agreed wholeheartedly with Oliver’s vision for the Justice League, something she believed she shared with the others.

So, no, Diana’s thoughts were not occupied with the knowledge of the Crisis and all of the other challenges that lay ahead. No, Diana’s thoughts were occupied with something she had decided she needed to do once the immediate threat from General Zod was dealt with. She needed to search for her home, something she had avoided for nearly a century, and work on convincing her mother and her fellow Amazons that the time had come for Themyscira to rejoin Man’s World, to be a beacon of hope in the darkest hour, as they were meant to do. She knew, of course, that the craft she and Steve had taken from Themyscira was enchanted to cover more distance than an average craft of it’s kind would have in the ages past, and that Themyscira would be closer to Greece than England. She had a starting point, at least.

She knew it would take a lot of convincing to get her mother to see reason, to get her fellow Amazons to acknowledge the need for them to return to Man’s World. Her people had become isolationist and believed they were better off not getting involved in the affairs of men. It was up to Diana to convince them that it was their duty as Amazons to aid mankind in the great struggles to come, and Diana knew it would take some time, that she would likely be gone for many months once she found Themyscira again. But if she brought her people back into the world, brought them to bear against the foes they would face in the future, than it would be worth the sacrifice.

**_*DC*_ **

Arthur Curry arrived back in Atlantis hours after leaving Starling City. He was greeted by his wife, Mera, who took his arm. “You seem troubled, Arthur,” Mera said as they walked along the palace corridors.

“I learned something troubling, so it stands to reason that I would be troubled,” Arthur said. “Atlantis needs to prepare for a world-ending event. The information the Justice League has puts this happening in the human year 2024, a little less than twelve years from now. I need to make sure our people are prepared, that our armies have the armor and weapons necessary to fight this threat, because it will take everything we can to defeat the enemy that wishes to destroy everything. I also learned there are other threats that could come.” Arthur slowly explained about Diana’s lasso, Oliver’s time travel, all of it, to his wife, who listened and didn’t comment until he had finished explaining everything.

“It is a fantastical story, Arthur, but then, the existence of Atlantis is surely fantastical to the world,” Mera said. “Do not become overly-worried about this. As you said, we have almost twelve years to prepare. We have the time to make sure our people and our army are ready to face this threat.”

“I know,” Arthur said. “I will not burden myself unnecessarily.”

“Good,” Mera said. “Because I’m not going to let you brood. It’s an unattractive quality of the male species.”

“Says you and every other woman in existence,” Arthur teased.

“Women are smarter than men,” Mera shot right back with a similar teasing tone. Arthur laughed as they walked along, slowly relaxing as he bantered back and forth with his wife. The Crisis and so much else was coming, that was something he had no control over. But what he did have control over was how he _reacted_ to all of this. **_*4*_**

**_*DC*_ **

The event of the year, the gala that the President was throwing to give politicians, private sector giants, and members of the various branches of government a chance to get to know the public members of the Justice League, was to take place on the White House grounds. The Secret Service were at their highest level of readiness, as was the Diplomatic Security Service. If something like what had happened at the last gala happened at this one, it would be an embarrassment to both agencies and they refused to let that happen again. So it was that when Oliver and Laurel arrived with Diana and Arthur as the ‘public face’ of the Justice League, they had to sit through a rigorous security screening to make sure they were who they said they were and were cautioned against making any sort of movements that might appear threatening as the agents were on high alert. “We’ll make sure not to make your men uncomfortable,” Oliver told the agent in charge soothingly. “We’ll simply be mingling. I assure you, we have no intention of causing trouble.”

“See that you don’t,” the agent in charge said, a disgruntled look on his face, and allowed the four to move onto the lawn of the White House where the guests were beginning to mingle. Oliver and Laurel separated from Diana and Arthur and began mingling. Eventually, they found themselves cornered by Amanda Waller and Samuel Lane, who had a burning question for Oliver.

“How did you do it, Mr. Queen?” Sam Lane asked Oliver as they stood with champagne glasses in their hands. “How did you _kill_ a Kryptonian?”

“I knew this would be something the two of you wanted to know and decided I would wait until we were here to discuss it with you,” Oliver replied. “Otherwise I would’ve sent a report to you detailing the incident. The substance I used is a mineral called Kryptonite. It’s radioactive pieces of their homeworld, the one substance in the universe that can kill them.”

“And how do you know about this?” Amanda Waller asked, raising an eyebrow at Oliver.

“The same way I know about many things, Amanda,” Oliver said. “Novu.” Waller blinked but nodded, taking that explanation without comment.

“Who’s Novu?” Sam Lane asked.

“A cosmic being that I came into the service of briefly a couple of years ago,” Oliver said blandly. “Suffice to say, he gave me information that’s helped me stay a step ahead of certain people. Which reminds me, Amanda, there’s two things we need to discuss. In private.” He gave Lane a look. The man looked disgruntled, but he had gotten the information he wanted from Oliver and walked off towards a cluster of Senators, no doubt to ingratiate himself with them for the next time the D.E.O. was up for review and needed a bump in funding. Oliver knew he would need to do the same himself at this gala, grease the palms and such. He hated it, but it was one of the dirty sides of what he had to do as leader of the Justice League.

“What did Novu show you that you need to speak to me about?” Waller asked briskly, observing their surroundings and making sure no one was eavesdropping on them.

“First, Slade Wilson is alive,” Oliver said, and Waller stopped surveying the area, zeroing in on Oliver. “I believe you’re currently calling his alter ego ‘Deathstroke’.”

“That explains much about Deathstroke’s seemingly unstoppable nature,” Waller said. “I assume you’re telling me this so that I can prepare a cell to hold him?”

“That’s right,” Oliver said. “I intend to cure him, as I should have done years ago. But it could take months to create a cure, especially if we have to start from scratch. Arthur has agreed to search for the cure Ivo made, so we can at least have a starting point.” Waller nodded. “In the meantime, I don’t want Slade running around wreaking havoc. Once he comes for me, and he will come, I plan to have him captured, and we need a place to lock him away while the scientists create a cure for the Mirakuru.”

“Do you think it _can_ be cured?” Waller asked.

“I do, though it may take some time for the affects to fade, considering it’s been in his system for almost five years,” Oliver said. Again, Waller nodded, agreeing with Oliver’s assessment. “The other issue is the idol from Lian Yu. Is it still in A.R.G.U.S. custody?”

“It is,” Waller said slowly. “Why? Is there a threat against it’s security?”

“In the future Novu showed me, H.I.V.E.’s leader, Damien Darhk, had it and used it to great effectiveness,” Oliver said. “I would rather not allow a man like that to have such a powerful magical artifact.”

“I agree,” Waller said. “I will up our security measures, just in case. H.I.V.E. will not get the idol.” She walked away, pulling out her cell phone to presumably get Lyla Michaels started on the latter.

“Oliver, Laurel,” Clark greeted as he and Lois came up alongside them. “Lois has something she wants to ask you…” **_*5*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> The next chapter will begin a two-parter and take place a month after this chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* I wanted to start this chapter off with it being just another day to Oliver and Laurel that they took all of this in stride and were taking it as par for the course. And yes, I might’ve been being a little petty with the ‘forget Felicity Smoak’ line. I will not deny this.
> 
> *2* Writing Bruce and his whole preparedness kick is kind of fun. Bruce wouldn’t be Bruce if he wasn’t already planning to deal with every eventuality. Because, well, he’s BATMAN.
> 
> *3* With this segment, I wanted to establish the possibility of the Guardians deciding to create more Lanterns from citizens of Earth. I *might* give a Ring to John Diggle and bring him back into the story in Volume III, but I’m not committing to anything just yet.
> 
> *4* With Diana and Arthur’s segments, I wanted to show these two both focusing on the idea of preparing their people for the coming Crisis and the ‘war to end all wars’, which is what I think the Crisis would count as.
> 
> *5* And now Oliver’s got Waller preparing for eventualities re: Slade and Darhk to hopefully neuter them and their threat level before they arrive.


	48. Statement Re: Felicity-X

I don’t usually make statements like this these days, instead leaving it up to a paragraph or two as part of the top-side A/N of a new chapter. This is partly because I think author’s notes inserted as a ‘chapter’ break the flow of the story in the extreme. But there has been something of a conundrum surrounding the assertion in _Coming Clean, Part 3_ that Felicity’s family were collaborators with the Nazi regime on Earth-X, and it’s causing enough of a hassle that I need to address it because where there’s two outspoken types, there are probably others who are questioning but don’t want to question the issue.

First and foremost, this was a little something called _creative license_ on my part. Earth-X is established very firmly to have been much like Earth-1 up until the Nazis finished the atomic bomb before anyone else and used it to assert their dominance over the world. I take this as meaning that certain things, like Felicity Smoak’s maternal grandparents (Judaism denotes lineage through the mother) being in a concentration camp still happened on Earth-X. Is it possible that they did not, that they immigrated to America or something and both they and Donna managed to evade the Regime? Yes. But seeing as Felicity’s father has a _German_ last name and he and Donna would have had to have met and had a union, well, there’s not a lot of ways for a man of German descent (Noah) and a Jewish woman (Donna) to meet and fall in love and have a daughter on a world run by _Nazis_.

Second, this was me trying to make sense of what the showrunners of the _Arrowverse_ decided was a cute Olicity moment that they just had to have in the crossover to show how much ‘in love with Felicity’ Oliver is, that he would risk exposure on Earth-X (risking operational security _and_ their ability to escape Earth-X and get back to their home Earth in the process) to save the doppelganger of the woman he’s dating and wants to marry. This was an absurd scene that makes no sense in a world run by _Goddamned Nazis_ , but hey, it was there, so we have to fucking make sense of it. Seeing as I firmly believe Felicity-X’s maternal grandparents were in the concentration camp same as on Earth-1, and Donna would have had to have met Noah (who likely would’ve been part of the Regime), that leaves very few options for how Felicity-X came into existence. The only other option is Noah-X _raped_ Donna-X, but that doesn’t explain how Felicity-X would have survived to adulthood since it is incredibly likely that Donna-X would have been killed while pregnant with her rather than allow a ‘half-breed’ to live.

Now, I won’t pretend that part of this wasn’t my bias against Felicity Smoak. A part of it was. But at the end of the day, no matter how much people complain or think that I’m being unfair to a character that we met _one time under suspicious as hell circumstances_ , it makes absolutely _no sense_ for Earth-X Felicity to have existed because Earth-X is under the control of the _Nazis_ , for whom the Jews were the number one target for their campaign of ethnic cleansing. On a world where the Nazis have ruled supreme for over sixty years, it is incredibly unlikely for a Jewish woman to exist _without_ something as heinous as collaboration for having gone on.

I would also like to point out two things about that scene in _Coming Clean, Part 3_ :

A: the suggestion came from _Bruce Wayne/Batman_ , aka the most paranoid son of a bitch in the entire DC Universe who would quickly leap to the worst-case scenario.

B: despite him being the one to suggest Felicity or at least her parents and grandparents were collaborators, Bruce also said it was entirely possible that she was different. This was me being as kind as I possibly can be, but apparently it’s not enough and both people who brought up this issue with me have conveniently ignored Bruce’s comments.

C: I did not confirm for a _fact_ that Felicity, her parents, and grandparents were collaborators. Do I think they were? Yes. I do. But I did not confirm them as such because there is _no way to do so_. So, right now, they are only assuming _possibilities_ for if/when they face Earth-X in the future.

I am sorry that the idea of Donna-X’s parents, Donna-X herself, and potentially Felicity-X being collaborators has offended some people. But I am not going to go back and retcon my own writing just because it’s made people uncomfortable. I’ve made it very clear that I am making liberal use of my own head-canons in this series, and with Felicity-X, that requires one hell of a head-canon to explain away, otherwise one finds themselves snapping at things in general.

Now, personally, this has become something of an issue and I’m going to be taking some time away from _Age of Heroes_ , even if it’s just a couple of days, because as far as I’m concerned, this whole thing is ridiculously frustrating. It’s a goddamned piece of fan fiction that is in no way considered canon, and I have made my position on Felicity Smoak and the showrunners’ fascination with her incredibly clear over a long career of anti-Felicity stories since 2016. I really don’t get why people are shocked/dismayed that I would come up with this kind of head-canon to explain away the existence of Felicity-X.

In the meantime, I’m either going to work on a one-shot or something else to deal with this. I would not be surprised if said one-shot had something to do with Earth-X since this is now on my mind.

This is my final word on this matter. Please respect this.


	49. Showdown, Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I briefly debated on whether or not to leave up my statement re: Earth-X Felicity, but there’s always the chance there’s some reader down the road who has the same concerns, and I’d rather not have to go over that stuff all over again in a comment one day. But as far as I’m concerned, that is going to be atypical of my work. I’m not going to have a non-story chapter very frequently in my work, and I’ll go out of my way to avoid it if I can. But considering how this was a potentially big issue, I decided it was worth a full statement.
> 
> Okay, so, this episode didn’t want to cooperate at times, and it took me a little while to figure out the logistics. But, it’s here. Enjoy.

**April 24 th, 2013**

**6:30 a.m.**

**Starling City**

The only thing of note to happen over the course of the next month was Oliver taking special care to mark Laurel’s twenty-eighth birthday, April 10th, which he celebrated by fixing all of her favorites for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, finished off with a round of Rocky Road ice cream before they headed out on patrol. Oliver expressed a wish that the criminals had stayed afraid of Laurel a little longer so they could celebrate her birthday without the need for a patrol, but Laurel told him that spending her birthday with him, whether it was having a romantic dinner or patrolling the city they both loved and helping it’s people, was just the way that she wanted to celebrate her birthday.

As dawn broke over Starling City on April 24, 2013, Oliver and Laurel were already up and getting ready. They were due to pick up Lois Lane from the airport within the hour, and then from there they would be heading to Slabside Penitentiary, where they would be coming face-to-face with Anatoli Knyasev for the first time since that night in the hangar during the mob war. They had both changed since that night. Oliver and his heroics were publicly known, and Laurel was no longer the frightened if fiery woman who had spat defiantly in Anatoli’s face, but a hero in her own right and someone who was not to be trifled with.

Of course, they were being _limited_ in what they could do if something did happen by the warden of the prison, who refused to allow them to bring their gear, citing the fact it could ‘stir up’ the inmates to have them show up in their uniforms and carrying their weapons. Oliver personally questioned how the inmates wouldn’t be stirred up just at the sight of them, but the warden was adamant and so they had been forced to comply with the warden’s demands. Laurel was dressed in the same black ensemble she had been during the Battle of Amnesty Bay and the trip to Atlantis, complete with Sara’s jacket and trading her snowboots from the time in for steel-toed combat boots, and Oliver was dressed in jeans, a black muscle t-shirt, his favored brown leather bomber jacket, and his own steel-toed boots. They might not be able to bring weapons, but they weren’t going to be completely defenseless.

“You think Lois will get anything from Anatoli?” Laurel asked Oliver as she pulled on her boots and laced them up. “I mean, at the end of the day, he’s Russian, and she’s ‘biased American media’.”

“True, but Anatoli has never been your typical Russian,” Oliver said. “It’s one of the reasons we got on so well.” He pulled on his jacket. “The truth is, he probably will take this time to get his side of the story out. He’ll be sure to point out that I went through the entire initiation process, that I killed for the Bratva. He won’t want to miss a chance to tarnish my image. Which is why I told Lois about the initiation process to begin with. I knew she would have to interview other people, including Anatoli, and I wanted to be upfront about everything so there was no surprise bombs dropped on her when she talked to them. It turns out for a lot of it, she’s getting stonewalled. People don’t like talking about failures in their national security, after all.”

“So, you think he’ll be upfront about how he worked with you in Russia and what he tried to do to force you into complying with him here in Starling?” Laurel asked.

“I think he will, but I also think we should be wary,” Oliver said. “To my knowledge, he hasn’t been replaced as Pakhan yet and there’s always the possibility that he’s managed to take over the underbelly of Slabside. If he has, this could all be one elaborate trap.”

“I’ll keep my eyes open,” Laurel said. “To be honest, though, I think we should be more worried about people like Tempest and The Huntsman. And every other scumbag we’ve sent up there.”

“Anatoli, Alexi, Gitter, Hunt, Wolcott, Pollard, Kullens, Hollinger, Cable, Ballard, Brick, The Count if only by proxy, Cyrus Vanch by virtue of them retrying him thanks to Adrian’s persuasive arguments, and someone who I hope will never become any sort of threat in this timeline, Ricardo Diaz,” Oliver listed off. “It’s a regular rogue’s gallery in Slabside of all of our greatest hits. They’re going to be so very happy to see us.” The sarcasm was quite heavy-handed, but Laurel smiled nonetheless at her boyfriend’s brand of humor.

“You know, I never realized just how many people we’ve sent away,” Laurel said. “Who’s Ricardo Diaz?”

Oliver grimaced. “Ricardo Diaz is a man who was little more than a street thug, but one with powerful friends in the Ninth Circle,” Oliver said. “He helped frame me for killing the son of a man named Cayden James, but just to mask his own attempt to take over the city’s criminal underworld, which succeeded. Diaz more or less sent Starling City back to its pre-Hood days, before I started taking down people like Adam Hunt. He re-criminalized the city, re-corrupted the S.C.P.D., even had the fucking District Attorney on his payroll.” Oliver hesitated for a moment. “He also killed Quentin.” Laurel stiffened, turning to stare at Oliver in horror. “He was aiming for your doppelganger, and Quentin didn’t want to watch you die all over again, so he threw himself into the path of the bullet. Siren and Tina got Quentin to the hospital, but… he died on the table.”

“Did you kill him?” Laurel asked.

“No, the Ninth Circle did when he betrayed them as part of the new Suicide Squad,” Oliver replied. “I did have a point where I could have. I almost did. But I was being released from prison that day, from Slabside, in fact, and I didn’t want to taint it by killing the bastard, no matter how much I thought he deserved it.” **_*1*_**

“Released from prison?” Laurel asked numbly.

“An F.B.I. agent named Samandra Watson made it a condition of her help in taking down Diaz that I confess to being Green Arrow and go to prison for my crimes,” Oliver said. “Ironically, it was Tina who got me back into the game, which makes me wonder what the Ninth Circle was up to. I can’t help but feel there were some backroom politics happening in the Ninth Circle that year.”

“What did Tina do?” Laurel asked.

“She found an old law on the books that let her deputize me as an officer of the S.C.P.D.,” Oliver said. “My team and I eventually all became deputized and essentially became the ‘black ops’ team for the S.C.P.D. Personally, I prefer what’s going on now. We don’t have to restrict ourselves to how the S.C.P.D. operates, which is good, considering the amount of corruption going on there.” Oliver was pensive. “At some point, I want to clean house inside the S.C.P.D. It’s going to be a pain in the ass, though, and I’d prefer to wait until your father is out of rehab. I know Lucas Hilton is a good man, but if there’s one cop I know won’t buckle under the pressure Nudocerdo could try to put on him, it’s Quentin.”

“Do you think he’s doing better?” Laurel asked quietly.

Oliver went over to his girlfriend and pulled her into a hug, kissing her forehead. “I do,” Oliver said. “I’m sure he’s still having problems accepting the new world paradigm, though, and it might take him a while. But Valleyville is a top-notch rehab facility. It’s why I suggested it to Pike after I cooled down and offered to front the bill. Quentin will get the help he needs, not only with his alcoholism but also with adjusting to the shifting world order. He’ll only be released once he can accept the changes in the world and not run the risk of sinking back into the state of mind that sent him there in the first place. I’ll be surprised if he can even have visitors before mid-summer.”

“So, you think he might be in there a while yet?” Laurel asked.

“I do,” Oliver said. “I do hope that by the time he has the right to visitors that Sara’s back. I think that’ll go a long way in helping him settle, being able to see that she’s safe and sound.”

“Yeah,” Laurel said with a sigh, leaning against Oliver’s chest for a moment before reluctantly pulling away. “Come on. Lois is going to want to be getting right on the way to Slabside, and she’ll probably be the first person off of the plane.”

“Probably,” Oliver said, and he and Laurel left the bedroom.

**_*DC*_ **

**April 24 th, 2013**

**7:00 a.m.**

**Slabside Penitentiary – Level One**

Anatoli Knyasev laid back on the bed in his cell, thinking over the coming hours. He had first learned of the request by Lois Lane to interview him with Oliver Queen and Laurel Lance present almost a month ago and told the warden to stonewall them while he made preparations. In many ways, Oliver sentencing him to this hell had been a blessing in disguise, as it had freed up a great deal of his time, and once he had asserted his dominance in this hell and supplanted the Aryan Brotherhood, he had essentially ran this prison ever since. He was still able to conduct his business as Pakhan of the Bratva, which was the only reason he was maintaining his power. He had forged alliances in this prison with others who had been sentenced here by Oliver Queen, Laurel Lance, or both, and all of them were eager to help in his vengeance, as it gave them a chance at vengeance as well. Even those who hadn’t been sent here by Oliver and Laurel wanted a shot at them, since it would increase their own standing in the hierarchy of the prison.

Forging the alliance for today to work had not been easy. There were two other factions in this prison, one ran by Cyrus Vanch and the other by the drug dealer known as The Count. Both had their own larger-than-life natures that drew people to them, and both of them had their own agendas. But they had their own scores to settle with Oliver and Laurel. Laurel had been the one to initially send Vanch to jail, and it was one of her underlings who had not only made sure he was retried, but that this time it was taken a step further and he faced federal charges, which is what had landed him in Slabside instead of back in Iron Heights. The Count, meanwhile, had been arrested after the Green Arrow had informed the S.C.P.D. of his location and they had taken him down. Both wanted vengeance on the ones who had led to their incarceration, and that was the bond which held this alliance together, vengeance against those who had imprisoned them in this cesspit.

Then there had been the smaller gangs. They had fallen in line quickly enough. The only large gang that had held out was the Aryan Brotherhood because of how Anatoli and the Bratva had taken their power away from them, but they had chosen to play along in the end, on the condition that they got some of their power back. Anatoli was fine with them acting as enforcers in the prison and agreed to their condition in that regard. It had taken nearly the entire month to get everything arranged, and they had just barely finished forging the alliances needed when the warden informed Anatoli he couldn’t stonewall Lane any longer. But the alliances had been made, and Anatoli more or less controlled the prison. No one would know what was happening in Slabside until it was too late. He would be open with Lane, because she would never write a word of what he said. She would die, with Oliver and Laurel, and there was nothing that the Justice League could do about it.

Yes, Anatoli knew about the Justice League. His contacts in the outside world had kept him informed of the events surrounding Oliver Queen. He had been surprised when he first learned that Oliver had been exposed, and by a man he had once called his brother, no less. Then the news had begun to pour in the past few months. Superman. Aquaman. Black Canary. Wonder Woman. Now Batman, the man who had been the one to take Anatoli down in that hangar in Starling while the brothers kept Oliver occupied. Anatoli had had to keep a lot of that information quiet, knowing that if people found out exactly what was going on in the outside world, the sheer forces that could be assembled against them if word leaked out of Slabside before the deed was done, the alliance would shatter. He had been forced to share the knowledge of Laurel’s superpower and that had shaken a few people, though Anatoli had suggested that if they could gag her, then she wouldn’t be able to use it. He also pointed out that she didn’t kill with it unless you were some kind of super-creature from the sea.

Still, the plan was moving forward. Each major gang would control a section of the prison, and their primary focus besides maintaining their power for as long as possible and keeping the few guards not on Anatoli’s payroll from calling for help would be to corral Oliver, Laurel, and Lane. Whether they killed said guards or not didn’t matter to Anatoli.

Finally, after months of waiting, Anatoli would have his revenge.

**_*DC*_ **

**The Temporal Zone**

“So, what’s next, Rip?” Sara Lance asked as they stood up from their seats as they entered the Temporal Zone, having just finished stopping an assassination attempt on a future leader of the United Nations that had been the inspiration for a slew of international laws that had seen the end of the proliferation of weapons in third world countries, cutting down on the rise in terrorism and separatist militias that Vandal Savage had taken advantage of.

“Next, Sara, is the moment that we have all been waiting for,” Rip said. “We’ve finished blocking all of the Council’s attempts to change the timeline back in favor of their chosen agenda. Vandal Savage will rot away in Belle Reve Penitentiary over the course of one hundred years while his immortality, stolen from Carter and Kendra’s past incarnations, slowly drains away before dying of extreme old age. Now all that’s left is freeing humanity from the control of the Time Masters once and for all by getting to the source of the Oculus’ power and destroying it, thereby ending their ability to manipulate the fates of mankind.”

“About damn time,” Dick Grayson said with an eager grin on his face. “How do we do this?”

“Gideon?” Rip said as they gathered around the central console.

Gideon appeared in holographic form over the central console. “ _The Vanishing Point itself is where the Time Masters are able to manipulate events, but they channel this ability through the Oculus by drawing the knowledge from the Vanishing Point into this central chamber._ ” Gideon highlighted the area on the underbelly of the Vanishing Point, which was a space station of sorts protected by an energy shield that allowed a breathable atmosphere. “ _The closest entry point to the Oculus Central Chamber is here._ ” Another spot was highlighted. “ _By now, the Council of Time Masters will have realized our plan and will have the Chamber under guard. You will have to fight your way through the Council’s personal security._ ”

“What kind of resistance are we looking at?” Sara asked.

“ _At least one hundred agents, spread out between the entry point and the central chamber,_ ” Gideon replied. “ _That is not even mentioning the outer layer of security that the_ Waverider _will have to slip through in order to even get to the Vanishing Point._ ” **_*2*_**

“Yes, which is why, before we hit the Vanishing Point, we’ll be going to 2266 and upgrading the ship with the best weapons, armor, and shields that we can buy,” Rip said. “Luckily, Superman and his cousin, Supergirl, are still around, as is Diana Prince, and they will have known about our mission from Mr. Queen. They will aid us, I am sure, in preparing the _Waverider_ for battle against the Council.”

“Who knows, they may even want to help us out in taking down the Council,” Kendra pointed out. “This _is_ the sort of thing organizations like the J.S.A. and presumably the Justice League get involved in. Oliver tasked us with this mission because there was no one else, but he never said we couldn’t get help from the inheritors of that legacy. I’m amazed that the Justice League still exists. It says something about what they’ve done, both that we know of and that is yet to come, that it still exists.”

“Alright, before we head to 2266, we need to make a final check of the ship, make sure we don’t have any stowaways or something of that nature,” Rip said. “You know your assignments. I’ll work on making the calculations for the jump to 2266.”

**_*DC*_ **

**April 24 th, 2013**

**8:30 a.m.**

**Slabside Penitentiary – Level One**

Oliver Queen, Laurel Lance, and Lois Lane entered the interview room at Slabside Penitentiary to find Anatoli Knyasev already there and handcuffed to the table. His dark eyes were fixed on Oliver as Lois sat down across from him and Oliver and Laurel leaned against the wall, ready to spring into action if he tried anything. There were at least six guards in the room, and Oliver didn’t know if they were there because of Anatoli or because of him and Laurel. “Mr. Knyasev, thank you for agreeing to meet with me,” Lois said.

“Of course,” Anatoli said. “I am pleased to tell true story of Oliver Queen to any who wish to hear it. It is not for faint of heart, though.”

“I’m sure you’ve heard at least some of the news from the outside, Mr. Knyasev,” Lois said plainly. “I think I can handle whatever you have to say.” She took out her recording device and turned it on. “Lois Lane, speaking with Anatoli Knyasev at Slabside Penitentiary, April 24, 2013. Mr. Knyasev, just to clarify: you met Oliver Queen in the fall of 2008 while imprisoned on the _Amazo_ , the mobile laboratory of Dr. Anthony Ivo, former C.E.O. of Ivo Industries, and the two of you formed a bond of friendship while facing Ivo and later Slade Wilson? Is this all correct?”

“It is,” Anatoli said. “Oliver was very different then. More unsure of himself, but I saw beginnings of man I met in Russia when he killed Anthony Ivo. Did he tell you this?”

“Yes,” Lois said. “He has been brutally honest with me about everything that has happened to him and everything that he has done in response. The only times he has been limited is when he touches on things that are classified by the U.S. government. He told me that he killed Ivo in part because Sara Lance couldn’t pull the trigger, but also because he wanted revenge, and that Ivo was not the first man he had killed by that point. As I said, Mr. Knyasev, you’ll have to try hard to surprise me.” Anatoli inclined his head. “How did you feel when you had to hit the _Amazo_ with the torpedo, knowing Oliver and Sara were still onboard?”

“Guilty,” Anatoli admitted. “I had come to respect both, but Oliver had been very clear. Two hours, then I was to blow _Amazo_ out of water.”

“So, what did you think when you saw him again in Russia?” Lois asked.

“I was pleased to see him, saved his life from Viktor when he tried to kill Oliver,” Anatoli said. “Then he tell me he is here to kill Konstantin Kovar, strongman for government. That was a little over a year ago, Miss Lane. Oliver was very different man from one who left to go on _Amazo_. Grimmer. Darker. Less moral. Not shining beacon of hope that he set himself up as when returning to Starling City.”

“Tell me more,” Lois said, knowing what was coming from Oliver’s brutal honesty.

“Oliver Queen killed for Bratva. Not just as part of initiation, as all Bratva must, but other times, as well,” Anatoli said. “Both before and after he became Kapushion.”

“Kapushion?” Lois asked. “That was what you called his Green Arrow persona, right?”

“Yes, Kapushion, or Hood,” Anatoli said. “But you wish to know whole story. That is end of story.” Lois nodded. “We made plan to kill Konstantin Kovar, but were betrayed by former Pakhan of the Bratva, Ishamael Gregor. Oliver vanished for months, then returned in June of last year with new attitude and hood. He tells me mad idea that he can separate his darkness with piece of cloth, Kapushion. Oliver and I kill Gregor, and I become new Pakhan. Kovar wished to subjugate Bratva, like arm of government. We make plan to kill Kovar, to stop his plan. But we need information. So, Oliver gets information, by torturing and killing one of Kovar’s men, skinning him alive. For practice, he called it. Oliver Queen is not hero, Miss Lane. He is monster, monster hiding behind mask of hero.”

Lois kept her expression impassive as she replied, “Oliver has told me about what he did to Kovar’s man. He also told me what that man was party to. Hundreds of murders, human trafficking, drug and gun-running, protection rackets, and more. More importantly, Oliver admits that he went too far in following the example of his teacher and that he has dedicated himself to never going that far ever again. In fact, he cites your words, that he resembled Anthony Ivo or Slade Wilson, along with the fact he failed to kill Kovar at that time as the reason for his choosing a different path when he returned to Starling City. How do you feel, knowing that in some ways you helped create Green Arrow?” Behind her, Oliver and Laurel couldn’t resist smirking at Anatoli, who narrowed his eyes. He hadn’t expected Oliver to be honest, not with his need to be validated as a hero.

“I am happy Oliver remains honorable man, but I also think him hypocrite,” Anatoli said. “No matter his choices, he killed for Bratva. He tortured and killed Kovar’s man. He is no better than Bratva yet tries to claim moral high ground during war with Bertinelli in Starling City.”

“Yes, let’s talk about the mob war,” Lois said. “It is very odd that the leader of the international Bratva would get personally involved in a single chapter’s fight with another crime family in the city. What exactly caused you to choose to come to Starling City and personally oversee the war between the Bratva and the Bertinellis?”

“Because I personally put Oliver in charge of Starling City chapter, and he was failing to protect his brothers,” Anatoli said.

“According to Oliver, he personally met with Franco Bertinelli and attempted to negotiate a peace between the Bratva and Bertinelli,” Lois said, “and that it was only the insistence from Alexi Leonov that Helena Bertinelli face some kind of mob justice, be it in prison or outside of it, that saw the peace talks fail. Wouldn’t it be more accurate to say that Alexi Leonov put maintaining the old ways of the Bratva over the prosperity of the chapter, in direct defiance to both yourself and Oliver?”

“I was… not aware of this,” Anatoli admitted reluctantly. “Oliver did not deny charge against him that he refused to take action, and threatened brothers. I could not ignore this. I knew I would have to take charge if only to keep Oliver safe from brothers’ retaliation when war was over. Then he defended Helena Bertinelli, risking the innocent lives he claimed to wish to protect with a protracted war between Bratva and Bertinelli. I had no choice but to seek leverage against him.”

“Which leads us to Metropolis and the Bratva abducting Laurel Lance while shooting her sister, Sara, and leaving her for dead,” Lois said. “Laurel Lance has said you implied that if Oliver didn’t accede to your demands that she would be pumped full of drugs and raped to punish him. Is that accurate?”

“It is,” Anatoli said stonily. “Oliver had to be made to see reason and know he cannot treat Bratva as if he is better than us.”

“So, you claim to want to better the Bratva, but then turn around, kidnap your only potential ally’s girlfriend, and threaten her with drug addiction and rape if Oliver doesn’t comply with your demands?” Lois asked. “It seems to me, Mr. Knyasev, that far from being a man who wants to move the Bratva away from criminality, you are further engaging in the very activities you claimed you wanted to stop.”

“I had no choice, certain things were expected of me as Pakhan when Oliver betrayed us,” Anatoli said stiffly.

“Finally, just to clarify. You were caught not by Oliver on his own, but by him and Gotham’s Batman?”

“That is correct,” Anatoli said.

“Thank you for your time, Mr. Knyasev,” Lois said, ending the recording. “I would wish you a good day, but I somehow doubt days in prison are at all pleasant.” Lois joined Oliver and Laurel at the door, none of the three seeing the smirk that crawled up Anatoli’s face or the nod that he gave one of the guards. **_*3*_**

“Well, that was interesting,” Lois said as they followed their escort through the prison. “I don’t see why you were so worried, Oliver. We got through that interview just fine without any issues.”

“We’re not out of Slabside yet,” Oliver said dryly. As they approached the door leading out to where they had entered from, the guard sped up, buzzed himself through the door, and then shut it behind him, locking them inside. “And there it is,” Oliver said darkly. “I get the feeling Anatoli was only so open with you, Lois, because he’s made the arrangements that none of us are leaving Slabside alive.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* This is my head-canon for why Oliver didn’t just kill Diaz during 7x07 when he had the chance. It would’ve probably tainted his release, or even caused it to be repealed, if he killed Diaz.
> 
> *2* In Legends S1, the Legends got into the chamber or whatever where the power source for the Oculus was *way too easy*, IMO. So, in this story, it’s gonna be a little more staggered and they’re gonna be fighting bad guys all along the way, ala the Citadel and the Collector Base in Mass Effects 1 and 2. Yes, I have an obsession with that trilogy of games. Do not make fun of my addiction. *sticks tongue out*
> 
> *3* Honestly, writing Anatoli’s justifications, I almost felt sorry for him, because he’s become so lost in being a crime boss that he doesn’t even *see* that he has become the very thing he hated. Re: the whole Ivo Industries thing, while that did seem like a bit of a retcon when it popped up in Season 7, it explains how Ivo was able to finance his crusade to find the Mirakuru. That couldn’t have been cheap.


	50. Showdown, Part 2

**April 24 th, 2013**

**8:50 a.m.**

**Slabside Penitentiary – Level One**

Oliver Queen, Laurel Lance, and Lois Lane stood in the hallway for a moment even as, in the distance, the clanging sound of metal on metal could be heard. “Was that what I think it was?” Lois asked.

“If you’re asking if that was the sound of the cell doors opening on every level, yes,” Oliver said. “Come on, we need to get somewhere safe so we can plan what to do. Otherwise we’re going to be sitting ducks when the prisoners get here. Come on!” He turned and started in one direction, Laurel and Lois following a moment later. “I memorized the blueprints of Slabside after we agreed to do this so I would know everything about it just in case this was an elaborate trap by Anatoli or anyone else we’ve sent here,” Oliver lied flawlessly as he led the way. “We need to get away from the main level for right now, get down to Level Two. There’ll be less prisoners there, and they might not have been released like the general population. We might even find allies down there.”

“Or we could just call Clark and bring in the cavalry,” Lois said, bringing her phone out of her purse. “We’re right by the ocean and both Clark and Diana can fly at high speeds, same as Hal. They can be here in minutes and you all can make Knyasev regret doing something so stupid.”

“Anatoli is many things, but he’s not stupid,” Oliver said. “I would give good odds you’ll find your phone doesn’t reach outside the prison.” Lois scoffed and touched Clark’s contact as they continued to walk along, following Oliver, only to frown in consternation. She pulled her phone away from her ear, the hiss of static audible even to Oliver and Laurel and gestured at the phone questioningly as Oliver looked back. Oliver turned back to his focus, getting down to Level Two, as he said, “There’s a command booth in the mess hall that cuts off all communications with the outside world in case the prisoners get ahold of a phone. There are some very dangerous people locked up in this prison. Cartel members, hitmen, serial killers, Aryan Brotherhood, Bratva, Bertinelli muscle, Triad… and that’s not getting into all of the people that Laurel and I are personally responsible for sending here. Any one of them could have contacts in the outside world to help them with an escape plan, which is why that command switch exists. Only, in this case, it’s being used to keep us from communicating with the outside, which means Anatoli has most of the prison on his payroll, probably even the Warden given the restrictions we were given.”

As Oliver had said all of this, he had continued to lead them towards where he knew they could get down to Level Two, where the prison riot hopefully wasn’t also taking place.

“So, shouldn’t we be heading to the mess hall to get that switch flipped and _then_ call in the cavalry?” Lois asked.

“Right now, there are over a hundred prisoners who are rioting, killing whatever guards aren’t on Anatoli’s payroll, and they’ll have been given very specific instructions on what to do if they see us,” Oliver said. “Right now, they’re too wild, too out for blood, that if we tried to get through them, they would probably kill us just because. Once they’ve consolidated their power blocs inside the prison, some semblance of order will be restored. It does mean we’ll be facing off against an organized resistance, but we have a better chance of getting to the mess hall alive if we face an ordered assembly of enemies instead of crowds of wanton violence.” Oliver stopped in front of the elevator and turned to face Lois. “I know that you can handle yourself, Lois, just as well as Laurel and I can. But believe me, rushing head-long into the riot is likely to get us killed.” **_*1*_**

“I suppose I can see that,” Lois finally said grudgingly. “So, this is our ticket to Level Two?” She gestured at the elevator.

“Yeah,” Oliver said. “Assuming Anatoli hasn’t locked it down completely to force us head-long into the riot because he doesn’t care who kills us.” Oliver keyed in a passcode he had been given by Waller as part of his operation in Starling City against Malcolm to override security of all types, the very same passcode he had used to disable Thawne’s home alarms, and the door opened. “All aboard,” he said, stepping onto the elevator. Laurel and Lois joined him, and he selected the button for Level Two. “It’s also possible the guards on this level are working for Anatoli,” he said as the elevator doors closed. “Or they could be completely unaware of what’s happening. On the off-chance that the riot is here as well, our only salvation will be that we don’t have to deal with as many prisoners.”

“There’s something you’re not telling us,” Lois said accusingly. “A few things, I think, like how you know Level Two has less prisoners, and how you got the elevator to work for us.” Laurel quirked an eyebrow at Oliver to show that she also wanted to know, if only what story he would spin.

“I’ve been here before, on a mission for A.R.G.U.S.,” Oliver quickly spun. “It wasn’t something I could tell you about, Lois, and I still can’t. But I know all the secrets of this prison. A.R.G.U.S. has override codes for every security system in existence, including those in prisons. And Level Two has less prisoners because only special cases, the most psychotic and violent offenders, are sent here as part of an attempt to rehabilitate them, like Arkham Asylum.”

“Oh, good,” Laurel said after a moment, her tone sarcastic. “Just what we need to brighten our day. A face-to-face with people like Wolcott. He’s probably down here, right?” It was said resignedly.

“Probably,” Oliver admitted, knowing that if Dr. Parker was already running his experiments that The Huntsman would’ve been a perfect test subject for him, which would probably make him _worse_. “Let’s just pray that the prisoners are all locked away and we can find allies down here instead of more enemies.”

“Oh, come on, Ollie, we both know the odds of that if Anatoli really does control the prison,” Laurel said as the elevator began to slow. “My bet? We end up fighting for our lives as much on this level as we do trying to get to the damned switch so we can call in the cavalry.”

**_*DC*_ **

**March 23 rd, 2266**

**10:30 a.m.**

**Washington D.C.**

The _Waverider_ emerged from the Temporal Zone over a familiar city and came into land in front of a building that, like many of the landmarks in Washington D.C., had inspiration from Greek or Roman architecture. “What is this place?” Sara Lance asked as Rip set the _Waverider_ down in front of it, hearing sirens blaring from the building and pessimistically thinking that they were probably about to get fucked over nine different ways and then once more just for good measure. “I don’t recognize it, and I’ve been to D.C. a few times over the years.” _Including on some missions for the League of Assassins,_ Sara couldn’t help but acknowledge glumly, thinking of times she had been tasked with killing lobbyists that the League had been hired to take care of by rivals.

“This, Sara, is the Hall of Justice, constructed in the summer and fall of 2013 to serve as Headquarters for the Justice League,” Rip said. “It is here we will find help. I checked the timeline to make sure that we would come here on a day where Superman, Supergirl, and Wonder Woman were all present so that we could ease any concerns our appearance will have caused. The Justice League is tasked with _many_ responsibilities over the safety of the world, including the appearance of mysterious vessels, be they spaceships or underwater cruisers of unknown make and model.”

Rip and the Legends exited the _Waverider_ a minute later and found themselves facing off with _several_ heroes. Superman and Wonder Woman were joined by a blonde woman with a similar uniform to Superman who could only be Supergirl, who was (according to Sara’s sister) an adorable thirteen-year-old girl in 2013 who wore jeans and pink sweatshirts with unicorns on them. There was also what had to be a Green Lantern, a man in a red uniform with a lightning bolt emblazoned on his chest, an archer in green that made Sara smile sadly, knowing this had to be a descendant of Oliver and Laurel’s who was studying them seriously but who seemed to recognize them somehow, and a man wielding a trident the way Aquaman did, clearly another Atlantean.

“Who are you and how did you breach the defenses we have up to keep starships from landing so easily?” Superman asked authoritatively.

“Ah, yes, sorry about that,” Rip said. “But technically, the _Waverider_ is a timeship, not a spaceship, though we can travel through space if needed. My name is Captain Rip Hunter. With me are Sara Lance, Barry Allen, Kendra and Carter Hall, Dick Grayson, Mari McCabe, and Dr. Nate Heywood. We were sent on a mission by Oliver Queen in 2013-”

“To stop the Council of Time Masters from controlling the fates of mankind any longer,” Wonder Woman finished, smiling gently at the Legends. “Oliver told us of your visit with him and Laurel in 2046. It brought them both a great deal of peace for the remaining thirty years of their lives, and they asked us to keep a watch for you, and to aid you if you came for it. But first,” she reached to her belt and removed a lasso, “you must be questioned under the power of the Lasso of Hestia to ensure you are who you say you are. Captain Hunter?”

“Very well,” Rip said, stepping forward.

Wonder Woman wrapped him in her Lasso and asked, “Are you Captain Rip Hunter, and are these the Legends assembled by yourself and Oliver Queen?”

“Yes,” Rip said. Wonder Woman, Superman, and Supergirl nodded, satisfied, and Wonder Woman released Rip from the Lasso and curled it up, replacing it on her belt.

“How can we help you?” Superman asked.

“We are on the final leg of our mission,” Rip said, “and we will be facing the full might of the Council of Time Masters, whose armaments and armoring are similar to those of the _Waverider_. We need to upgrade our ship to stand a chance of reaching the Vanishing Point and destroying the Oculus.”

“Darius?” Superman asked, turning to look at the archer.

“We can get it outfitted, but it’ll take a little while,” the archer said. “Darius Queen. Nice to finally meet my many-times great-aunt,” he added, giving a nod to Sara, who nodded back with a small smile. It was good to see the family legacy continued. “My sister is gonna hate she missed this. You and your sister are both her namesake, and she’s this generation’s Black Canary.”

“Sara Laurel or Laurel Sara?” Sara asked, arching an eyebrow.

“The latter,” Darius said. “Sorry, but considering you disappeared in 2013, even if you popped up in 2046, you just aren’t as well known outside of my family as Laurel Lance-Queen was.”

“Eh, figures,” Sara said. “I reserve the right to change that fact when I get back to 2013, though.”

“Fair enough,” Darius grinned. “Oh, and Darius is just my middle name. Technically, my first name is Oliver, but I go by Darius because that is one _hell_ of a name to live up to.”

“So, where is your sister?” Sara asked.

“Eh, she and the Birds are dealing with a human trafficking operation in Russia,” Darius said with a shrug. “Depending on how long it takes to upgrade your ship, and how long it takes the Birds to deal with that op, you might end up meeting her, Aunt Sara.” **_*2*_**

“Aunt Sara,” Sara repeated, amused. “I’m gonna have to get used to that when I get back to my own time, aren’t I?”

“Can’t say, family orders are to reveal as little as possible about what happened during the original Green Arrow and Black Canary’s lifetime,” Darius said, miming zipping his lips.

“Don’t worry, I know the drill,” Sara said.

Rip cleared his throat. “As interesting as all of this is, we should do this as quickly as possible,” he said. “Where should we go?”

“There’s a Queen Global ship manufacturing plant on the edges of D.C.,” Darius said. “I’ll come along and use my access codes to get you to the front of the line for upgrades. Still gonna take forever, so I’m sure you’ll be welcome to stay in the Hall of Justice while you are here with us.”

“Yes, you are,” Superman said. “Oliver would’ve wanted it that way.” The Legends all smiled. It would be nice to have a place to lay down and recharge while the ship was prepared. “In the meantime, you can tell us all about what you’re facing… and what you’ve done so far.” Superman smiled, the gleam in his eyes purely that of a reporter. Supergirl had a similar gleam in her eye while Wonder Woman gave them looks of fond exasperation.

“That seems agreeable,” Rip said with a nod. Darius joined the Legends aboard the _Waverider_ while the rest of the Justice League returned to the Hall of Justice to assuage the fears of the president and military and to prepare some bunks for the Legends.

**_*DC*_ **

**April 24 th, 2013**

**9:05 a.m.**

**Slabside Penitentiary – Level Two**

The first thing that Oliver, Laurel, and Lois noticed as they stepped off of the elevator was how _quiet_ it was, which they didn’t know if that was a good thing or not in this section of the prison. Oliver led the way cautiously, and then stopped as a guard came around the corner. He looked as startled to see them as they were to see him. “What the hell?” he asked. “Who are you and how did you get to this level?”

“My name is Oliver Queen,” Oliver said, and the guard’s eyes bugged out as his brain registered that this was in fact Oliver Queen talking to him and that the two women were Lois Lane and Laurel Lance. “In case you didn’t know, there’s a riot up on Level One. They’ve already breached the bunker in the mess hall and turned on the signal blocker to keep us from communicating with the outside world. We came down here using a classified method to plan out how to get to that switch and to avoid the bloodlust that’s going to be going around in the riot right now.”

“Holy shit,” the guard whispered. “Come with me. You’ll need to tell Dr. Parker this, and then I’ll need to work on finding the other guards on this level.”

“Be careful if you do,” Oliver warned. “Anatoli Knyasev is behind this riot and the fact he’s managed this so quickly says he’s got cooperation from both prisoners _and_ guards, maybe even the warden.”

“That’s not possible,” the guard protested.

“It _is_ possible,” Oliver said.

Before any of them could say anything else, a figure bounded around the corner and locked his arms around the guard’s neck, choking him. The guard writhed in his attacker’s strong grip while Oliver tried to pry the attacker’s arm off, but the attacker, an albino man with a shaved head, delivered a strong kick to Oliver’s midsection, sending him back with a grunt, and then he finished his goal, crushing the guard’s throat. The guard slipped to the ground, face purple and blood vessels in the eyes livid from asphyxiation. Oliver stepped forward again, his intent to attack the albino man clear, but then the albino man held up his hand, and rolled the guard over, pointing downward. Oliver glanced down quickly, then did so again, more slowly, to see the back of the guard’s shirt was a bloody, tattered mess.

“The prisoners control this level,” the albino man said in an accented voice. “This level fell before the main riot. It’s more isolated, less guards. They believed their security measure was foolproof. The guards that aren’t on Knyasev’s payroll are dead and prisoners wear their uniforms with the intent to use the confusion to escape. Dr. Parker is currently being held and tortured in another part of this level for his experiments.” The albino grinned viciously. “A fitting fate for such a man.”

Oliver studied the albino man. “You’re a prisoner here,” he said. The albino nodded. “Yet you attacked one of your fellows. You’re going against Anatoli. Why?”

“I have been here mere weeks,” the albino man said. “I know of the outside world, of who you are and what you do. You and I are not so different, Oliver Queen. You do as you do because of your father’s dying wish, according to one of the interviews you gave Miss Lane in December, before the crime wave hit.” The albino man’s reddish eyes flickered to Lois, who met his gaze defiantly. “I know something of wishing to seek a father’s approval. It is why I am here. I was here to kill each and every prisoner located on this level, to show him I am worthy. But… I was captured.” It seemed to be an admission the albino man hated to make.

_Albino… seeks the approval of his father…_ There was only one person their unexpected ally, if he could be called that, could be. “You’re Dusan al Ghul,” Oliver whispered softly. “Ra’s’ son.”

“I am,” Dusan said.

“So, why help us?” Oliver asked.

“Because a man such as you does not come to a place such as Slabside without discovering it’s weaknesses,” Dusan said. “I wish to trade my services in your struggle on this level for one thing, and one thing alone: a way out.”

“And you think we cannot handle ourselves?” Oliver asked. “Your sister, Talia, was my trainer. Laurel was trained by her sister, who was in turn trained by your other sister, Nyssa. Lois is the daughter of a former general and learned more than one martial art growing up in bases across the globe. Why do we need you?”

“Because you are a hero, Mr. Queen, and despite what Dr. Parker has done, you will attempt to save his life,” Dusan said. “It is who you and Miss Lance are. And you will need all the help you can get to do so.”

“If I did give you a way out, I wouldn’t help you get there,” Oliver said.

“I would not expect you to,” Dusan said. “I am perfectly capable of escaping. I need only know where to go.”

“Ollie?” Laurel asked.

“I’m thinking,” Oliver said, turning it over in his head. On the one hand, he knew from Bruce that Dusan wanted nothing more than Ra’s’ approval, and Dusan himself had stated he had come here to massacre the entire level to prove himself worthy, worthy of his father’s notice, no doubt. Dusan was likely guilty of many other heinous things in his efforts to gain his father’s approval. On the other hand, it seemed Oliver now knew why Dusan had never shown himself after he had killed Ra’s in the future that no longer existed. He had likely died here in Slabside, a victim of Dr. Parker’s brutal experiments, and if Oliver rescued Parker from the prisoners, those experiments would likely continue, sentencing Dusan to death. There was a part of Oliver that said that any who sought Ra’s’ approval were monsters, but then he thought of this man’s sisters. Neither of them had been monsters, merely desperate for a father’s attention. Dusan was the same. Could Oliver really condemn a man for seeking a father’s approval, even if that father was just this side of terrifying? Especially when he had done the same for so many years? **_*3*_**

“You have only a short time to consider my offer before we are discovered,” Dusan warned Oliver.

“I’m assuming that if you were to escape that you would continue to seek Ra’s’ approval, doing as the League are trained to do, replace evil with death?” Oliver asked.

“Yes,” Dusan said softly.

Oliver closed his eyes. At the end of the day, Dusan was dedicated to the League and it’s ways the way Ra’s, Talia, and (currently) Nyssa were. Every ally he could have against the coming Crisis he would take, even if they were unknowing allies. “First, we rescue Dr. Parker,” he said finally, meeting Dusan’s reddish gaze. “Once we’ve done that, I tell you a way out. But you’re on your own getting there.”

Dusan grinned wolfishly. “Agreed,” he said, holding out a hand. Oliver took it, and they shook it. Dusan reached down and retrieved the guard’s keycard. “We will need this,” he said. Oliver nodded.

“Why don’t we use that way to escape ourselves?” Lois asked.

“Because there’s no guarantee of survival,” Oliver said. “But I’m guessing Dusan here is one of those few who can beat the odds. He managed to get into Slabside and all the way to Level Two without being discovered after all. It takes one hell of a survivor to do that. I’m guessing he can survive the only escape method I know that doesn’t include fighting through Anatoli’s gangs.”

“We should go,” Dusan said.

“Then let’s get to it,” Oliver said.

**_*DC*_ **

**March 23 rd, 2266**

**6:30 p.m.**

**Hall of Justice**

The dining hall of the Hall of Justice was quite noisy tonight. The Justice League of 2266 and the Legends led by Rip Hunter were all seated around the table, swapping stories of their lifetimes (Oliver and Laurel hadn’t decreed that the stories of their descendants couldn’t be told). Darius was telling a laughing Sara and an incredulous Barry about the time he had to fight a Valeronian with a literal axe to grind because of something one of the Queen family had done in the past that had brought shame to the Valeronian’s ancestors. “So, there I am, this axe-wielding psychopath coming at me, and all I can think of is how do I get this guy to cool off. And that’s when it hits me; I have a cryo arrow in my arsenal! So, I hit him with a cryo arrow, keeping him immobilized, and right around then Supergirl shows up and knocks him out before sending him to the Phantom Zone, and she gets immediate applause! I was the one that actually captured him, but she got the credit for dealing with him!” Darius was undeniably pouting.

“Still whining about that, Darius?” a woman’s voice asked from the doorway. Darius wilted just a little as a woman in black leather (or liquid armor more likely) entered, fishnet patterns on her thighs and a smirk that Sara knew all too well twitching her lips upward. “Did you tell them about the fact that you were running around for twenty minutes, firing off different kinds of arrows, only to piss the Valeronian off more and that the cryo arrow was _your last one_?” The woman’s blue eyes, inherited from her many-times great-grandfather, switched over to look at Sara, a flash of surprise flitting across her features.

“Yep,” Darius said, grinning wickedly at his sister, Laurel Sara Queen, the current Black Canary. “This is our many-times Great-Aunt Sara.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Laurel Sara said softly, giving a nod in Sara’s direction.

“Wow,” Sara said softly. “You look almost exactly like my sister. But your eyes… those are Ollie’s eyes.” She tilted her head in Darius’ direction. “So, I’m guessing the Valeronian thing was early in his career?”

“Yep,” Laurel Sara smirked. “To be fair, he was still getting used to all the arrows and hadn’t read the manual that told him how his quiver worked, and which arrowheads did what. It was a bit of a learning curve until our Dad sat him down and made him learn everything. ‘If you’re going to be Green Arrow, you’re gonna do the name proud,’ he said.”

“Well, for what it’s worth, it sounds like you’re a lot like how Ollie was when we were younger,” Sara told Darius sympathetically. “He didn’t become the bad-ass you’ve probably heard stories about until after the _Gambit_ went down. Before the _Gambit_ , he was a goof who didn’t study too hard. And whatever other mistakes he made, he was a good man in his heart, and it seems to me like you’re the same. You may not think you’re living up to his name, Darius, but from what I’m seeing, you’re more than a worthy inheritor of the name Oliver Queen.”

Darius beamed. **_*4*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* Oliver is pretty much in survival mode right now, and he knows that they need to be prepared for a sustained assault against all of the gangs in the prison before they make a move, and that means making a plan of attack among other things, which they can’t do anywhere on Level One because the prisoners will be searching for them there.
> 
> *2* So, I wanted to give Oliver and Laurel a damned good legacy that lasted into the future a hell of a lot more than they got in the show, where they seemed to have been forgotten completely by time. Having their descendants be the new generations of Green Arrow and Black Canary, living up to the examples they set as well as their names, felt like the proper way of doing that.
> 
> *3* Season 7 established that Slabside *can* hold a prisoner trained by the League of Assassins, as evidenced by the fact that Talia had been there since shortly after Lian Yu. Seeing as Dusan al Ghul never showed up in-universe (thus far anyways) and his sisters exist, he is probably dead. Considering the kind of people that populated Level Two in-universe, it’s likely that he would have infiltrated Slabside to try and kill all of them as a way of ‘proving himself’ to Ra’s, based on my limited understanding of the character. Him being captured is just a nod to the whole ‘Talia got held by Slabside ever since Lian Yu’ thing. Anyways, here’s Dusan al Ghul, everybody!
> 
> *4* Aw, family moment! I initially just wrote ‘Laurel’ when referring to Darius’ sister, but seeing as these two might play a major role in this arc, I decided it best to go with the ‘first and middle’ approach to separate her from our Laurel in the present day since there’s no codenames going on at Slabside.


	51. Showdown, Part 3

**April 24 th, 2013**

**9:10 a.m.**

**Slabside Penitentiary – Level Two**

“How many prisoners were there on this level?” Oliver Queen asked Dusan al Ghul as the two of them, Laurel Lance, and Lois Lane made their way through the level.

“Nine others besides myself,” Dusan said. “Hadrian Wolcott, Daniel Brickwell, Ricardo Diaz, Rye Wilkinson, Nathaniel Barnes, Tony Zucco, Alexi Leonov, Eric Needham, and Larissa Diaz.”

“I know who Wolcott, Brick, Leonov, and Ricardo Diaz are,” Oliver admitted. “I never heard of the others.”

“Rye Wilkinson is a hitman for the mob that goes by the name the Electrocutioner,” Dusan replied. “Nathaniel Barnes is a vigilante who executed criminals in Gotham City called the Executioner. Tony Zucco is the man responsible for the murder of the parents of the first Robin, student of the man my father considers his Heir. Eric Needham is a vigilante called the Black Spider who likewise kills criminals rather than let them be dealt with by the law. Larissa Diaz is an assassin known as Copperhead.” **_*1*_**

“And which ones are playing guards?” Oliver asked.

“Barnes, Wilkinson, and Needham. The man I killed was Tony Zucco.”

“And the rest are off torturing Parker?” Lois asked.

“Yes,” Dusan replied. He didn’t sound particularly sympathetic to Dr. Parker, which Oliver could sympathize with, having experienced Parker’s sadism first-hand.

“Barnes and Needham are vigilantes, what are they doing working with scum like Anatoli?” Laurel asked. “Hypocrites…”

“They are not working for Knyasev, but taking advantage of the chaos he’s sown,” Dusan replied. “We may not even meet them. They had the guards’ keycards. Wilkinson is working for Knyasev, though.”

“That’s something, at least,” Laurel allowed.

Oliver, Dusan, Lois, and Laurel moved through Level Two and quickly found themselves facing a man with thick black hair in a guard’s uniform. His eyes widened, but Oliver moved quicker, rushing forward and delivering a knife-hand strike to Wilkinson’s throat, paralyzing his voicebox, before catching him in a backwards headlock. He took only a moment to decide Wilkinson’s fate and snapped his neck, to the shock of both Laurel and Lois. Oliver met their shocked gaze evenly. “Men like Wilkinson who work for the mob are beyond redemption,” he said. “I’ve never hidden what I do to those I find to be that.” Dusan nodded approvingly while Laurel recovered, reminding herself that she had supported Oliver in this before.

“Sorry, Ollie, it’s just the first time I’ve been here when you actually killed someone,” Laurel said. “Took a moment to register.” Oliver nodded.

“I’m fine,” Lois said after a moment. “Just kind of… startled. I’m used to… more non-lethal methods.”

“I normally aim for non-lethal,” Oliver said, “but in this case, we’re fighting for our lives. Those I don’t kill, I’m crippling. It’s a matter of survival against over a hundred of the worst sorts of people to walk the Earth. I’m not going to play nice because it might tarnish my image. Besides,” he added dryly, “people cheered on me killing Malcolm. I don’t think they’re suddenly going to turn on me because I went lethal during a prison riot.”

“Probably not,” Lois admitted.

“I don’t expect you to kill, Lois,” Oliver said, softening slightly. “I don’t expect _either_ of you to kill,” he added, looking at Laurel as well. “But we are going to be fighting for our lives. This is the sort of thing I faced every day on Lian Yu, in Hong Kong, in Russia… And I survived because I was willing to take that extra step. I won’t require you to do so. I can carry this burden on my own.”

“I won’t kill,” Laurel said, “not unless there’s no other choice. But I’m pretty sure I know the right frequency to break bones with my Cry. Crippling these bastards will take them out of the fight. I can do that much.”

“I know how to bring people down hard,” Lois said. “Dad made sure I knew how to handle myself, paid for every self-defense lesson I was taught, even called in some favors and got a Marine to train me. I can put them down hard without killing.”

“That’s more than enough,” Oliver agreed. “I don’t claim to be perfect. But when I’m in this kind of setting… this is how I act. I’m sorry if it upsets either of you, but until we get out of this, you’re going to see an uglier side to me than I have shown previously.”

“We should go,” Dusan said, stooping down and taking the keycard off of Wilkinson.

“Agreed,” Oliver said. The four continued on their way and began their approach to the door where Oliver remembered people being taken for Dr. Parker’s research. There was a lone woman standing guard, dark-skinned and dark-haired with a cold smirk on her face as she twisted a pair of shivs in her hand. “Copperhead, I’m guessing,” he murmured to Dusan.

“Yes,” Dusan replied. “I will take her. I came here to kill these people. I will kill at least one. That will leave only three for you to deal with.”

“Alright,” Oliver said. Dusan didn’t speak further, instead rushing forward and meeting Copperhead head-on. He drew her away, dodging her shivs with almost supernatural grace which made Oliver wonder if the third al Ghul child also had access to one of the hidden Lazarus Pits, remembering that Thea had had supernatural agility when she first emerged from the Pit. A concern for another time, he decided, as he used the guard’s keycard to open the door and led Laurel and Lois through the door, which closed behind them. Coming through the door, they could hear the sounds of screams coming from the other end of the hall. “Sounds like the prisoners are getting their revenge on Dr. Parker,” he said grimly.

“Poor man,” Laurel said sympathetically.

“I’m not sure I’d use that appellation for him,” Oliver said. “Dusan mentioned the good doctor is running experiments on the prisoners on this level. Something tells me that they’re not sanctioned methods of treatment.” With that comment, Oliver began leading Lois and Laurel towards the source of the screams.

**_*DC*_ **

**March 24 th, 2266**

**8:30 a.m.**

**Hall of Justice**

Sara Lance smiled in greeting at Darius and Laurel Sara Queen as she sat down at the breakfast table. “I didn’t see you two in the dorms last night,” she said.

“Oh, we don’t stay here,” Darius said. “There’s trans-mat portals between every major hero hub and the Hall of Justice, lets us come here at a moment’s notice. We went to our apartment last night.”

“Not the mansion?” Sara asked.

“The mansion, the loft, and the Quiver are all tourist attractions now, showing the origins of the founder of the Justice League,” Laurel Sara said. “The Queen family gets a cut of the profits, but Queen Global is our main source of income. Along with Wayne Enterprises, we’re one of the leading employers not just in America, but the world.”

“So, are either of you the C.E.O.?” Sara asked.

“Not yet,” Darius said. “Our Dad, Quentin, is the C.E.O. right now. Truth is, it’s probably likely one of our cousins will become C.E.O. after him. Most of us in the main Queen line either take up the Green Arrow and Black Canary mantles or enter public service as lawyers, doctors, social workers, etc. Ever since the original Green Arrow and Black Canary, the Queen family has had a history of heroism and public service.”

“Yup, that sounds like Ollie and Laurel’s family,” Sara said with a smile. “So, you got people named after me and Laurel, our Dad… what about our Mom?”

“No one wants to name their kid Dinah, it’s even considered bad luck,” Laurel Sara said. “We can’t tell you what happened because of the family edict, but it was bad. Real bad.”

Sara looked at Laurel Sara in shock. She cast back her mind to before she left, but she couldn’t remember a single moment where Laurel seemed shaken when talking about their mother, though to be honest they hadn’t talked much about Dinah since Thanksgiving, but when they had Laurel had always seemed so supportive of Sara wanting to bring their family back together, even though she had told Sara about what happened between their parents a year after the _Gambit_ sank. What could’ve happened between her mother and her sister to cause her sister’s descendants to avoid naming any of their children after her mother? What could cause that kind of schism in their family?

“Sorry,” Laurel Sara said, and she sounded it. “I wish I could tell you more, but the family edict is ingrained in us.”

“It’s okay,” Sara said. “When I get back to 2013, though, Laurel and I are gonna have a talk, because I can’t for the life of me think of what could’ve happened to cause that. And I know my sister. She wouldn’t be unforgiving over something simple. That’s not who Laurel is.”

“No, it’s not,” Darius said. “Family biographies and journals make it very clear that your sister had an altruistic personality and that served her well in what she did as Black Canary and as herself.”

“I like how you’re keeping it vague,” Sara said dryly. “So, how long do you think it’ll take to get the _Waverider_ ready?”

“Well, we’ve got quite a few upgrades to install,” Darius said. “Silaris armoring on the hull, Cyclonic Barrier shielding to take the kinds of hits the standard Council ship has if we go off of the Waverider’s basic weapons systems, and the Thannix Cannon to hit hard and without mercy. Which, by the way, are all being paid for out of the Justice League’s budget because we know how important this mission is, why Grandpa Oliver sent you on it. Also,” here, Darius grinned, “you might find yourselves with back-up on this mission. Diana, Kal, Kara? They’ve been watching for any sign of you since Grandpa Oliver and Grandma Laurel died. They want to make sure all of you get back to 2013 safe and sound.” **_*2*_**

“Well, I won’t say no to back-up, we can take all the help we can get,” Sara said. “Rip might balk at taking people who are important to the timeline, though. But he did bring Barry and Dick with him, and they’re supposed to be integral to the timeline, so I guess he might be okay with it.”

“Okay with what?” Rip said as he entered the dining hall.

“Darius was just telling me that Diana, Kal, and Kara have all been waiting for any sign of us to help us, and they might want to come along when we go to face the Time Masters,” Sara said.

“Hmm, that could be problematic,” Rip mused, “but it could also be quite the ace in the hole. It would depend on the make-up.”

“Well, you better consider us part of the package,” Laurel Sara said, gesturing to herself and Darius. “Grandma Laurel would’ve been the first one to volunteer if this happened when she was alive. We wouldn’t be Queens if we didn’t volunteer for this.”

“Wow, you _really_ take after my sister, and not just in looks,” Sara said. “I’m glad something of her lives on even after all of these years. I can tell her about this, right?”

“Yeah, you can tell her about what you saw in the future and past, she can’t really affect that,” Darius said. “Plus, the world’s gonna change when you go back to 2013, anyways, just by you being there. And none of us would be here if Grandpa Oliver hadn’t been sent back in time by the Monitor in the first place. Without that happening, Star City would be a burnt-out husk and the age of heroes would’ve fizzled out into darkness.” **_*3*_**

“Good, because I know Laurel, she’ll have so many questions,” Sara said, “and I want to share my stories with her, like I did my League stories.”

“League stories? The Justice League didn’t get together until after the Legends left, though,” Laurel Sara said, confused.

Sara raised her eyebrows. “Laurel never wrote in her autobiography or journals where I got my training, the training I passed on to her?” she asked.

“Um, some of the early journals were lost in a fire,” Darius said. “And her autobiography was focused more on her emotional and mental journey, not so much on how she became Black Canary.” Darius tilted his head in a way that was so very like Oliver that Sara almost thought she was staring at her friend. “So, what stories are you talking about?”

“You know the stuff about Ollie’s training, I’m guessing,” Sara said. “After the _Amazo_ , I was found by a woman named Nyssa al Ghul. She took me to Nanda Parbat, and I lived and worked under the wrathful eye of Ra’s al Ghul for three years.” Darius and Laurel Sara’s eyes widened. “Do you want to know more?” They nodded minutely. “Okay, then, here we go,” Sara said with a grin.

**_*DC*_ **

**April 24 th, 2013**

**9:20 a.m.**

**Slabside Penitentiary – Level Two**

Oliver Queen, Laurel Lance, and Lois Lane entered the office where the screams were emanating to find three people inside, Alexi Leonov and Ricardo Diaz looking on as Hadrian Wolcott slowly peeled back the skin of Dr. Parker’s arm, which was the cause of the man’s screams. “Enough,” Oliver barked, startling the three and causing Wolcott to turn, leaving Parker moaning in agony, strapped down to the chair he had been forced into. Wolcott’s eyes landed on first Oliver, then Lois, and finally Laurel, after which his smile grew feral.

“Ah, you’ve come, little bird,” Wolcott all but purred. “I was so hoping we could find some time. We have unfinished business, you and I.” His eyes drifted down to her legs, where were clad in form-fitting black jeans and his tongue flicked out, licking his lips.

“Keep fantasizing, Wolcott, because that’s all it’s ever gonna be,” Laurel said frostily. “That piece of me you got in C.N.R.I.? That’s the only piece you’re gonna get. That’s all you’ll ever have. But don’t worry. I have other things I can leave to help you remember me by.” She smiled sweetly. “Who knows. I might even sing you a song, a little lullaby, to remember me by.”

“So, you’re the Green Arrow,” Ricardo Diaz said, eyeing Oliver up and down dismissively. “I don’t think you’re so tough. If I were a betting man, and I am, I’d say you’re gonna be a moaning, bloody pile of broken bones once I’m done with you. Then, I’m gonna have both of your lady friends before Wolcott here has his fun with them. Alexi, too, because he’s got a score to settle with the little bird, as Wolcott calls her.”

Oliver ignored Diaz’s smart mouth and focused on Alexi. “Depending on how this goes, Alexi, I might just break your neck after giving you a concussion this time,” Oliver said. “You keep turning up like a goddamned cockroach and it’s really beginning to annoy. And I don’t _like_ being annoyed, especially by a two-bit gangster who has it a little hard pleasuring himself these days.”

“You will not get me, Kapushion,” Alexi said smugly.

“I wouldn’t count on that,” Oliver said before focusing on Diaz. “So, you want to _fight_ the Green Arrow? I’m right here, Diaz.”

“I’m going to break every bone in your body, and I’m going to do it with a smile,” Laurel informed Wolcott.

“Then let’s do this!” Diaz snarled, rushing towards Oliver with a shiv in hand. Oliver met him halfway and disarmed him, sending the shiv flying through the air even as Laurel ducked under a wild swing from Wolcott and delivered a quick strike to his armpit with her right fist, earning a grunt of pain from the British man. Oliver delivered a quick jab to Diaz’s solar plexus, driving the breath from his body while Laurel ducked around Wolcott and delivered a quick series of punches to his kidneys, earning a howl of pain from the serial killer. Lois stuck to the sidelines, watching the fight and memorizing everything she could while also keeping an eye on the slimy Russian that Oliver had casually threatened with a broken neck. Apparently, there was a lot of history there. But soon Lois was entirely fixated on the fights.

Diaz delivered a solid right hook to Oliver’s jaw, splitting his lip open in the process, followed by a straight punch that gave Oliver a bloody nose. Diaz was emboldened by his successes and launched a kick at Oliver’s chest, but the Emerald Archer was ready for the attack and grabbed Diaz’s foot before bringing a palm strike down on Diaz’s knee joint. Diaz howled in pain and fury as Oliver released him, falling back and crumpling to one knee as he gripped his leg. Oliver was not in the mood to be honorable in this particular scenario and moved forward, catching Diaz in a reverse headlock as he had Wilkinson. “Goodbye, Ricardo,” Oliver said stonily before snapping Diaz’s neck and letting him drop to the floor.

Laurel, meanwhile, had been showing just why she was named after a bird as she evaded Wolcott’s attacks, making the man grow more and more frustrated as his prey evaded him with her bird-like grace and delivered quick, sharp attacks to his torso and even a couple of right hooks to his jaw when she got the chance. Finally, Wolcott simply _lunged_ at Laurel, teeth gnashing at her face as she held him off and then delivered a swift kick to the balls with her steel-toed boots. Wolcott’s eyes bugged out and he let out a whimper, falling to the ground, but this put him in a prime position to target what he had been lusting after. His fangs sank into the cloth of Laurel’s jeans, trying to get at the firm flesh of her right thigh beneath. Laurel snarled at this intrusion and delivered quick, punishing blows with both fists, repeatedly beating at Wolcott’s skull until he fell back, loopy. His teeth hadn’t managed to puncture her jeans, and she kneed him in the jaw, sending him back. He moaned in agony. “Aw, is the poor little serial killer afraid of the big bad Canary?” Laurel asked sweetly. “Here’s a little song to remember me by.” She unleashed a sustained Canary Cry, striking Wolcott’s legs, chest, and arms before letting up. Wolcott lost consciousness before she finished.

Alexi Leonov had seen what was happening and decided to get the hell out of there before Kapushion made good on his threat. He moved to run out the door but found himself blocked by Lois Lane. “Sorry, all bad guy getaways are cancelled,” Lois said cheerfully before reaching out, grabbing Alexi by the collar of his prison uniform, and delivering one, two, three rapid right hooks to his temple. Seeing as Lois was no dainty wallflower but a top-notch reporter who had had to fight her way out of more than a few unpleasant situations over the years, she had become an expert at delivering punishing blows to assholes’ heads, and so Alexi keeled over, groaning. Oliver finished off Lois’ attack with a kick to the head with his steel-toed boot, silencing the one-handed Russian gangster.

“Thank you,” Dr. Parker groaned as the two heroes and one reporter moved further into the room. “Thank you. They were going to kill me.”

“For good reason, I’m sure,” Oliver said as he took a seat at the computer.

“What are you doing? Those are my private files!” Dr. Parker protested.

“Experimentation on prisoners is considered cruel and unusual punishment, _Doctor_ ,” Oliver replied, hacking into the man’s files and beginning to download all of the data onto a flash drive. “Your little sideshow experiment? I’m shutting it down.”

“I thought we were focusing on getting out of the prison full of psychopaths?” Lois asked.

“I’m multitasking,” Oliver replied.

“You don’t understand, I’m trying to _help_ these people!” Dr. Parker protested. “I am trying to rehabilitate them, make them into productive members of society.”

“You can’t wipe out a person’s criminal nature by committing crimes of your own, Dr. Parker,” Oliver replied coolly as he plucked the flash drive from the hard drive tower and handed it to Lois. “That will be quite the expose for you to write, Lois, all about the good doctor’s illegal and inhumane experiments. These people may be criminals, but they’re still human beings.”

**_*DC*_ **

**March 24 th, 2266**

**1:20 p.m.**

**Hall of Justice**

The Legends had spent their time in 2266 simply resting and relaxing or preparing for the fight to come. Barry, as the one who had been responsible for ship maintenance after his information download as Chronos, had been responsible for integrating the new technologies into the _Waverider_ and making sure that they made sense. The biggest problem, as he had explained to Sara over lunch, was the integration of the Thannix Cannon, calibrating it to work with the _Waverider’s_ systems and not draw too much power. As it stood, their power reserves were tapped up and at optimum capacity, leaving the _Waverider_ in perfect condition for their assault on the Vanishing Point.

So it was that the Legends gathered in the Council Chamber of the Hall of Justice with the Justice League of 2266 to discuss the very point that Darius and Laurel Sara had brought up earlier that morning with Sara: that some of the Justice League intended to go with the Legends to face the Council of Time Masters. “I swore to Oliver on his deathbed that if you ever came to me, needing my help, I would give it, and upgrading your ship isn’t enough,” Superman said. “I know that you’ll be facing overwhelming odds at the Vanishing Point based on what you’ve all said. It’s a suicide mission without more help. I’m coming with you.”

“So am I,” Supergirl said cheerfully. Superman shot his cousin an exasperated look. “What? You just said they need every advantage they can get, and two Kryptonians are better than one!”

“Fine,” Superman said, rolling his eyes. “But you’re going to stay where I can see you.”

“Kal, I’m over 200 years old, I’m not a little girl anymore!” Supergirl protested.

“And yet you whine like one,” Superman said, lips twitching. The Queen siblings were smiling with fondness, which made sense in Sara’s mind. She had a funny feeling that all of the descendants of the original Justice League were close. “You’re coming. And I suppose you two are as well?” he asked, turning to look at the Queen siblings.

“We already volunteered for it,” Green Arrow said with a shrug. “Besides, we get to fight alongside our many-times Great-Aunt. How often does _that_ happen?”

“My brother, the nerd,” Black Canary snarked, once again proving how like her namesake (Laurel) she was. Green Arrow pouted at his sister, who promptly ignored it to turn her attention to Superman and the Legends. “What about you, Diana?” she asked, turning to Wonder Woman.

“As much as I would wish to, I cannot,” Diana said. “As Kal reminded me last night, I am the Justice League’s leader for this generation, and we cannot all go on a mission such as this and leave the League leaderless. But my heart goes with you, and I will wish for your speedy victory and safe return. Something I feel is assured with Kal and Kara going with you.”

“Unless the Council has Kryptonite,” Supergirl said, deflating slightly.

“Which is why I want you to stay close by,” Superman said. “With any luck, they won’t know that we’re coming and only be prepared for the Legends. No offense,” he added, looking at the people in question.

“None taken,” Rip replied dryly. “It is almost a certainty that the Council has used the Oculus to track our progress. I am only surprised that they have not attempted to kill our past selves in some way.”

“Then we’re in agreement?” Superman asked.

“We are,” Rip confirmed.

Superman turned to Green Arrow and Black Canary. “Get your gear together and then meet us at the _Waverider,_ ” he said. The Queen siblings headed off, lightly bickering over what Green Arrow should include in his arsenal, while Superman and Supergirl left the Council Chamber with the Legends, heading out to wait with the _Waverider_ and feeling a sense of apprehension. They were about to engage in a battle for the very destinies of mankind, and that was a heady feeling for anyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* The second Electrocutioner, a minor Batman villain, was an unnamed hitman for the mob. Rye Wilkinson was a suggestion for a name from Nyame.
> 
> *2* Fans of the “Mass Effect” trilogy will recognize the upgrades as being among the primary ones you need to give to the ‘Normandy’ in order to survive the Suicide Mission at the end of Mass Effect 2. Yes, I’m doing a lot of ME references in this story. That’s because “Age of Heroes” is all about building teams to face impossible odds/suicide missions, and I couldn’t help but make the comparison when needed.
> 
> *3* Pre-Crisis timelines include Mia, William, and Connor in burnt-out Star City, and Nora West-Allen living in a city that hasn’t seen a hero in decades. In other words, in the timeline before the merging of the Earths, the age of heroes died with Oliver and then Barry. Zari grew up in a world that condemned meta’s. And by all accounts, the Earths didn’t merge in the original Earth-1 timeline despite the Crisis. So, yeah, there was a pretty grim future without COIE merging the Earths the way it did.


	52. Showdown, Part 4

**April 24 th, 2013**

**9:30 a.m.**

**Slabside Penitentiary – Level Two**

Oliver Queen had spent the last ten minutes using Dr. Parker’s computer to access the security feeds from Level One to assess what was going on and keep an eye on the riot. What he saw disturbed him. “Alright, it looks like this was better planned on Anatoli’s part than even I thought,” he said, drawing Laurel and Lois’ attention. Dusan, who had come in with blood staining his prison uniform, was focused on Dr. Parker, but Oliver would guess he was listening even if he wasn’t going to be helping them up on Level One. “It looks like he’s managed to unite all of the gangs and crime lords that are held here into a somewhat cohesive army. Level One is split into three sections: general population, the medical wing, and the mess hall. There appear to be three different factions waiting for us, one in each section.”

“Who leads each faction?” Laurel asked.

“It looks like Anatoli’s staggered our enemies in how we meet them,” Oliver said. “General population is currently controlled by a faction led by your old friend, Cyrus Vanch, with your other old friends Eric Gitter and Adam Hunt backing him up with about thirty generic goons. The medical wing is controlled by a faction led by The Count with Brickwell leading the troops while The Count makes use of the chemicals available in the medical wing, and the generic goons in this faction number roughly another thirty. Fifty more are stretched in the hallways leading between the medical wing and the mess hall. Finally, there’s the mess hall. Twenty generic goons on the ground floor, ten more on guarding the door to the control booth, and Anatoli and Tempest inside the control booth.”

“So, first up we face the guys I’m responsible for putting away, then the ones you are, and then the ones that we both had a hand in,” Laurel listed off. “You weren’t kidding this morning when you said that it was a regular rogue’s gallery of all of our greatest hits.”

“That’s… a pretty grim picture,” Lois said.

“Yes, it is,” Oliver said. “We need to be prepared, and we need to take weapons from the generic goons where we can, to give ourselves an advantage. This isn’t going to be some honorable fight. This is live or die time.” Oliver stood and moved to speak to Dr. Parker, Dusan stepping aside. “Are there any weapons on this floor, in case the prisoners got out of hand?” Oliver asked the man.

“Armory on the other side of the level, but I’d bet Barnes and Needham already got to it,” Parker said wearily. He knew his career was over, and that these people were his only chance of getting out alive. He wasn’t about to make it more difficult for them. “Or maybe they just focused on getting to Level One and then out the door in the chaos. You never know with those two. Considering their distaste for criminals, it’s entirely possible they’re planning to go after the inmates on Level One.”

“Hmm,” Oliver mused to himself.

“What are you planning, Queen?” Parker asked suspiciously.

“It seems to me that Barnes and Needham share a common foe with us,” Oliver replied. He turned to Lois and Laurel. “We stand a better chance against Level One armed and armored and with some back-up. At the end of the day, Needham and Barnes aren’t so different from me, from who I was for five years. I am in no place to judge them after the sins I’ve committed. I was lucky that I had powerful friends who went to bat for me. Out of selfish desires of their own, yes, but they still went to bat for me and it made me the leader of the Justice League.”

“I’m not sure I’m comfortable with this,” Lois said. “I’ve heard of the Executioner and the Black Spider.”

“They’re exactly the kind of help we need right now,” Oliver said.

“Are you one hundred percent sure about this, Ollie?” Laurel asked.

“I am,” Oliver said. “Trust me, Laurel. I know what I’m doing.” And he did. If he could make an alliance with Slade Wilson, Malcolm Merlyn, and Nyssa al Ghul to rescue his family and friends on Lian Yu, he could make an alliance with people who, at the end of the day, were just the same as he had been for most of his vigilante career in the previous timeline. Finally, Laurel nodded, showing that she was with him. Oliver turned to Dusan. “You held up your end of the bargain, so I’ll hold up mine. The only way out of Slabside is through the morgue. They dump the bodies of prisoners who die out into the ocean. It’s a couple of hundred feet straight down and there’s not a beach for miles, but it’s a way to get out.”

“You’re letting that madman loose? What the hell is wrong with you!” Dr. Parker shouted.

“We made a deal, and I honor my deals,” Oliver said.

“Thank you for the information,” Dusan said. “But I think I will aid you in your fight. I can still escape in the aftermath. You will need all the help you can get to defeat Knyasev.” He grinned wolfishly. “Plus, the more evil that I cleanse from this world, the more likely my father is to be impressed.”

“True enough,” Oliver said, privately thinking that Dusan was probably his father’s most devout child despite being cast out for being an albino. Nyssa and Talia had both become disenchanted with Ra’s and the League after realizing their father would never allow them to inherit his mantle, while Dusan was still loyal and striving to impress his father with his commitment to the League’s mention. “Alright. I just hope Barnes and Needham don’t try to kill you.”

“They will not,” Dusan replied. “Kindred spirits recognize one another.”

_There is that, I suppose,_ Oliver thought. “Alright, let’s move out. If we want to catch Barnes and Needham, if they’re even at the armory, we should move fast.” Oliver turned to look at Parker. “All the other prisoners are dead, but I’m guessing if you come with us, Barnes or Needham will put a bullet in your head for your experiments. Personally, I want to see you and the warden face justice for these experiments. But I won’t argue with them, or with Dusan here, if they choose to end your life before we leave this level.”

“You’re no hero, Queen,” Parker spat.

“You’re right,” Oliver said with a small smile that was twisted with bitter irony, “and I’ve never claimed to be one. As I told Malcolm Merlyn, as I recently told the Justice League, I am no hero. I’m a _vigilante_.” Oliver turned to Dusan. “Do what you will. I’ll be outside.” He walked out, trailed by a perturbed Lois and a resigned Laurel, while Dusan grinned wolfishly at the doctor. **_*1*_**

**_*DC*_ **

**The Vanishing Point**

The _Waverider_ appeared at the Vanishing Point, a space station that existed outside of time and space, with a flash of light and found itself drifting in front of a small fleet of timeships arranged in a defensive formation between the station itself and the ‘entry point’ to the Vanishing Point’s point of existence. Inside the _Waverider_ , the Legends had assembled and were all prepared for battle along with the 2266 Justice League members who had joined them for this final battle against the Council of Time Masters. Chronos was at the weapons console, calculating the first strike for the Thannix Cannon while Superman monitored the defensive capabilities of the _Waverider_ from another console. White Canary, Black Canary, Green Arrow, Nightwing, Vixen, Supergirl, Hawkman, and Hawkgirl were all seated; Nate Heywood was ensconced in the safety of the library; and Rip Hunter was at the controls of the _Waverider_ , a grim expression on his face. “I called many of these people my friends and colleagues once,” he said softly. “It would be unforgiving of me to not give them a chance to stand down. Gideon, open a general hail. I will speak to my fellow Time Masters.”

“ _Channel open, Captain,_ ” Gideon said a moment later.

“This is Captain Rip Hunter aboard the _Waverider_ ,” Rip said firmly. “I know what the Council has said about me. Many of you may even believe in your heart of hearts that all that they say about me is true, that I am aberrant, that I am a rebel, that I am a misfit. Perhaps it is. But I did not undertake the mission that the team that I assembled and I have been on lightly. I learned that the Council, the very body we have sworn to defend and follow the orders of, cares nothing for their fellow human beings, seeing them as pawns to be pushed around on a chessboard. I learned that the Council have become so drunk on the power to manipulate their fellow men that when their chosen timeline was rendered obsolete, that when a _better_ timeline emerged thanks to the actions of Oliver Queen, founder of the Justice League, they reacted by deciding to _reverse_ this new, better timeline, to end the threat to their power.

“They tasked the Ninth Circle with killing the 502 people Oliver Queen saved by killing Malcolm Merlyn. They tasked Chronos with destroying my team and multiple assassins with killing key historical figures so that Vandal Savage, an immortal tyrant who they aided in conquering the world in the timeline that existed before Oliver Queen killed Malcolm Merlyn, could reign supreme earlier than 2166, simply so they could be the ones to have claimed to have saved humanity, ignoring the countless millions that Savage slaughtered indiscriminately in his bid to rule the world. The Council of Time Masters does not care for the fate of humanity, they do not _care_ about the billions slaughtered because of their machinations. All they care about is their own ego, their own sense of superiority.

“I speak to you, my fellow Time Masters, in the hopes that you will look into your heart and realize that the Council is _wrong_. We cannot defend humanity by losing our own, by cutting ourselves off from all emotion, all feeling. Take a moment now and ask yourself if the Council’s sense of superiority is worth dying for. Because that is what you face, and you will not face the Legends alone. It was Oliver Queen who sent us on this mission, and his legacy, the legacy of the Justice League, lived on and follows his edicts even now, including choosing to stand with the Legends against the tyranny of the Council. It is our place to stand as guardians of history. Well, my friends, right now, you are on the _wrong side_ of history. Choose wisely.” **_*2*_**

“This is Kal-El of Krypton,” Superman said, “and I am confirming what Captain Hunter has said. We do not wish to kill any of you. But we will fight however we must to protect the world from the machinations of the Council. It is your choice whether you die for their ego.”

For over a minute, they sat in silence, watching the fleet of timeships for any sign of movement, whether it was to attack or to concede. Finally, the fleet of timeships began to drift off to the side. “ _Captain, I am receiving signals from the other A.I. aboard our fellow timeships,_ ” Gideon said. “ _They are standing down. They will take no further orders from the Council. They are standing with us, Captain._ ”

“Excellent,” Rip said, “but let’s keep the shields up just in case this is a ruse.”

“ **An excellent choice,** ” Chronos said.

The _Waverider_ soared past its fellow timeships, angling it’s descend towards the closest point on the Vanishing Point where the _Waverider_ could land to their entry. “Unfortunately, I doubt we will be able to sway the Council’s security forces the same way,” Rip said. “The security forces are loyal to the Council first and foremost, handpicked from various security agencies throughout time for their dedication to doing things ‘by the book’, in this case, the book written by the Council. But I am glad my fellow Time Masters chose to stand down in the face of the Council’s arrogance. I did not wish to harm them unnecessarily.”

“None of us did, and I must say, that was quite the speech, Captain Hunter,” Supergirl said.

“Thank you,” Rip replied.

**_*DC*_ **

**April 24 th, 2013**

**9:50 a.m.**

**Slabside Penitentiary – Level Two**

Oliver, Laurel, Lois, and Dusan had made their way across the eerily quiet Level Two to the armory, where they could hear two men discussing something in low tones. Oliver held up a hand towards the other three, signaling for them to hang back, that he would make the approach himself. He knew that Lois’ opinion of him had probably lowered again because of his letting Dusan kill Parker, and his decision to align with Barnes and Needham, but the fact was that they needed all of the help they could get and he had a sinking feeling that before the day was done, Lois would understand that all too clearly. Because even with weapons and body armor, if that was even available in the armory, the likelihood they would get out of this situation without some injuries was low. And it was nearly May, which in Oliver’s mind meant it was probably almost time for Zod to make his move, because everything always happened in May. It’d be just his luck to be still healing from injuries, _again,_ when bad guys were making their move, _again_.

Oliver pushed open the door that was slightly ajar and instantly came face-to-face with two men, one heavy-set and the other thin, who had shotguns aimed right at him. He held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Easy, I’m no inmate, or prison guard for that matter,” he said quietly. “I’m going to step slowly into the light so you can see who I am. Please do not shoot me.” He did exactly as he said, stepping slowly into the light, and waited for recognition to set in.

It did. “You’re Oliver Queen,” the heavy-set man said, lowering his weapon. “Heard all of this was about killing you. Not surprised this scum hasn’t got you yet. They’re rabid animals, most of them, don’t know what to do with their freedom except commit crime.”

“Scum,” the thin man agreed. He nodded at Oliver. “Eric Needham, or Black Spider. This is Nathaniel Barnes, or the Executioner. Always nice to meet a fellow fighter of the good fight. Must be nice, though, being able to do what you want and not being labeled as the same as the criminals you hunt. Though I think you’re a little too forgiving with some of these people.”

“Believe me, it’s a lot harder than it looks for me to not just deal with them permanently in general,” Oliver replied. “I’ve managed to gather intel on what’s waiting up on Level One. I’m guessing since you’re here that you’re not planning on just walking out the door, but planning on dealing with as many of them as possible?”

“That’s right,” Barnes said. “You got a problem with that?”

“Not at all,” Oliver said. “I was thinking that my group and the two of you should join forces. The main thing we need to do is make it to the mess hall to flip the switch that is keeping communication from leaving Slabside. Once that’s done, we aim to call in the cavalry. But there’s a lot of bad guys in between there and here.” Slowly, Oliver laid out the details he had managed to pull from the security feeds from Level One on Parker’s computer for the two men. “My group consists of my girlfriend and the Black Canary, Laurel Lance; Lois Lane; and Dusan al Ghul, who I assume you are familiar with. Together with the two of you, I’m certain we can fight our way through these bastards and flip the switch, bringing in the cavalry.” Oliver tilted his head. “So, what do you say?”

“You’re not going to hold us back, right? We can deal with those we fight on the way as we wish?” Needham asked.

“I’m intending to kill or cripple, myself,” Oliver said. “I can’t exactly judge you for doing the same.”

“Then I’m in,” Barnes said.

“Same,” Needham said.

“Alright,” Oliver said. “I’m going to call my group in so we can arm up as well.” Barnes and Needham nodded, turning back to their work. “It’s alright, you can come in now,” Oliver called out, and within seconds Laurel, Lois, and Dusan were entering the armory. “We have an accord,” Oliver told them. “We’ll be working together to get to the switch in the mess hall. Arm up and make sure you carry extra clips, because I want us to take as many of these guys out from a distance as possible, whether we hit them with kill shots or not. The less time we have to fight with them physically, the less we’re likely to get overwhelmed.” Lois and Laurel nodded. Dusan surprised Oliver by strapping on body armor and taking a pair of pistols as well as shoving clips into the pockets of his prison uniform and into the slots on the body armor designated to hold clips. Oliver wouldn’t have expected a child of Ra’s al Ghul who was dedicated to his father’s vision to use modern conveniences, and the League considered guns a coward’s weapon. Then again, Dusan had also proven he was quite pragmatic, so perhaps he was of the mind that as long as the job was done the methods didn’t matter.

Oliver strapped on a pair of holsters to his legs and slid a pair of pistols into them. He armored up, slipping clips into place in the slots on the body armor reserved for them, and then selected a combat shotgun and a bandoleer full of shotgun shells which he wrapped around his torso. He turned to look at Laurel and Lois. Both had armored up and gotten spare clips, but were limiting themselves to a single pistol, which Oliver supposed made sense. They had probably been trained, by Quentin and Sam respectively, how to make each shot count. Oliver knew for a fact Laurel still kept a shotgun in her apartment even though she was rarely there out of habit, having done so since she moved out of her parents’ house at twenty-one. He also knew for a fact that she kept a pistol in the nightstand on her side of the bed. Which was fine. Oliver did the same on his side. **_*3*_**

“Looks like we’re ready to go,” Barnes said. “I, for one, am ready to give this scum a permanent solution to their criminality problem.”

“Then let’s go,” Oliver said with a nod. The four men and two women left the armory behind, heading back towards the elevator, where they could now use the guard keycards to access the elevator since Anatoli would want them to come back to Level One.

**_*DC*_ **

**The Vanishing Point**

Rip, Superman, Supergirl, White Canary, Chronos, Vixen, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Nightwing, Green Arrow, and Black Canary made their way off of the _Waverider_. “So, we didn’t need those upgrades after all,” Nightwing couldn’t help but say. “That was kind of anti-climactic.”

“We didn’t _know_ whether we would need those upgrades or not, though,” White Canary pointed out as they headed for the entrance point where they would begin their assault, wary blue eyes keeping an eye out for the Council’s security forces in case they made a pre-emptive strike on the Legends and Justice League. “For all we know, we could’ve been in a twenty-minute dogfight up there which would’ve required us to have those upgrades. Not to mention they _did_ shoot at us on the way in with their ground emplacements. Rip’s just that damn good of a pilot that we never needed the armor and shields to absorb the hits.”

“Point,” Nightwing acknowledged. “Still, kind of feel bad about us basically wasting the Justice League’s money for upgrades we won’t use.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that, Nightwing,” Rip said. “While we may never use it against the Council, there’s always other adversaries that seek to manipulate the timeline in their own favor, not all of them human. Having those upgrades will be useful, even if they weren’t useful on this mission.” Rip focused ahead. “But we’re nearly upon our objective. Be wary. The Council will know where we’re going, and they will have their forces ready for us.”

“And we’ll be ready for them,” Superman said.

“Quite so,” Rip replied.

The rest of the journey was done in silence, with each hero keeping a wary eye out for the Council’s forces. Finally, they reached the entrance to the long road to the power chamber. “Here we go,” Supergirl said cheerfully as they entered the first chamber… and almost immediately had to dive for cover as weapons fired at them from all directions.

“Aw, I don’t think they like us,” White Canary snarked to Black Canary and Green Arrow, who smirked at their many-times great-aunt’s sarcasm. “So, how are we going to handle this one, Rip?”

“Superman, Supergirl, Chronos, Green Arrow, and I will stay back here and provide covering fire to allow the rest of you to get in close and do what you do best,” Rip said, leaning up over the barricade and firing off his pistol, sending the Council’s forces (which had no cover) scurrying. Chronos did the same with his cannon, catching Council security officers in the chest and sending them shuddering to the ground as his stun blasts took effect. Superman and Supergirl rose up into the air, firing beams of Heat Vision at the Council’s forces while Green Arrow nocked and fired arrow after arrow, not having to worry about running out thanks to the nano-tech quiver which constructed his arrows whenever he ran too low, one of the many upgrades made to the Green Arrow mythos since the days of the original Oliver Queen.

White Canary and Black Canary raced forward in tandem, Black Canary unleashing the Canary Cry she had inherited, causing the Council agents that it was aimed at to curl in on themselves, hands over their ears. White Canary was almost instantly in their midst, bo staff twirling and catching them behind the knees, in the stomach, and at the back of their skulls. They went down hard, and those few who struggled to get back up were taken down permanently by a few well-placed kicks and punches from Black Canary. White Canary had a small, sad smile on her face as she thought of the kind of things she could get up to in 2013 when she got back, fighting beside Ollie and Laurel. She had learned her lesson on this trip, and she knew what was important now. Starling City was her home. Oliver and Laurel and Quentin and Dinah were her family. She would fight for both. **_*4*_**

Hawkman and Hawkgirl descended on the Council security forces from above, using their wings as weapons to strike a few of them and send them flying into a wall with a crunch. Then Hawkman brought down his mace on the head of the nearest Council security agent, leaving his ears ringing, and then delivering an upward strike with his mace, catching the man in his chin. The man fell back, jaw bloody and completely unconscious. Hawkgirl struck another Council agent in the gut with her dagger and delivered a sideways strike against his helmet with her own mace, sending the man flying. The Hawks fought back-to-back, never letting their enemies get an edge on them, and brought down the unit of Council security they were fighting with efficiency.

Vixen summoned the spirit of a gorilla and raced forward, leaping at the Council forces and landing in their midst. She delivered powerful blows to the Council forces and sending them flying as, with the spirit of the gorilla, her punches were as strong as any actual gorilla’s. The security forces landed in crumpled heaps and laid still, bodies shattered by the powerful blows and the landings.

Nightwing danced into the midst of his targets, his own bo staff twirling and striking at more than one target before he broke it down into batons and started striking with both, delivering blows to groins, knee joints, jaws, and the back of skulls while also using his acrobatics and training from Batman to deliver painful crippling blows that left the men moaning on the ground, those that were conscious anyways.

The Legends and Justice League rejoined amidst the unconscious or moaning Council security forces. “Let’s continue on, shall we?” Rip said, and the two teams moved forward, further into the complex.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* I love writing Oliver being tactically-minded, assessing the situation and determining the best path forward for survival. And yes, Oliver is getting back to his roots in this episode of being a vigilante and proud of that fact.
> 
> *2* Say what you like about Rip Hunter, if there was one thing he knew how to do, it was how to make one hell of a speech.
> 
> *3* In Season 1 of “Arrow”, Laurel is shown to keep a shotgun in her home for protection. This is a plot point that’s only brought up once and then dropped, as is par for the course with regards to scenes that show character development with Laurel Lance. Considering she is the daughter of a cop and has been making enemies left and right as both a lawyer and now as Black Canary, it’s conceivable to me that she would have not only the shotgun but a pistol for protection and know how to use it.
> 
> *4* Sara’s journey in this story has been about finding out what’s really important in her life and teaching her that time travel isn’t all fun and games or something of a thrill, that it is in fact a truly terrifying power. She knows what’s important now and will be joining Oliver and Laurel in fighting for her home because of this.


	53. Showdown, Part 5

**April 24 th, 2013**

**10:05 a.m.**

**Slabside Penitentiary – Level One**

Oliver Queen, Laurel Lance, Lois Lane, Dusan al Ghul, Nathaniel Barnes, and Eric Needham all had their weapons raised as the elevator door opened just in case Anatoli Knyasev had sent a welcoming committee to meet them as they returned to Level One. But no one was waiting for them on the other side of the elevator door, and the six stepped off, not lowering their weapons completely. “First up is gen pop,” Oliver said. “About thirty generic goons and three ringleaders. I want Vanch, Hunt, and Gitter alive if possible, see if we can’t get info from them about what the other factions are up to in the medical wing and the mess hall.”

“Sounds good,” Barnes said. “but we can kill them after you’ve questioned them, right?”

“Assuming they aren’t already crippled during the initial fight,” Oliver said. “All I care about is making sure no one can come up behind us after we’re done and stab us in the back. Doesn’t matter to me if they’re killed or crippled.” Barnes nodded, satisfied. Lois and Laurel said nothing, both concerned for their own reasons about Oliver’s willingness to align with more brutal vigilantes and that he had already allowed Dusan al Ghul to kill Dr. Parker despite initially planning to rescue the man. “Let’s go,” Oliver said, beginning to lead the way to general population. “The thing about gen pop is there’s three levels and it’s likely the prisoners will be spread out instead of being on the ground floor. If that was the case, it could be like a turkey shoot.” Barnes and Needham chuckled darkly at that while Dusan grinned wolfishly, as was becoming custom with him.

“So, just so I’m clear, if Laurel and I just wound these guys, one of you might still kill them?” Lois asked.

“Got a problem with that, sweetheart?” Barnes asked. Needham, it was becoming obvious, was more the silent observer type.

“A little bit of one, yes,” Lois replied. “I get making sure they can’t follow us, but if they’re down and can’t move, killing them is murder, not self-defense.”

“Queen said he doesn’t care what we do,” Barnes said. “And I don’t think he’s going to be moving away from that anytime soon.”

Lois looked away from Barnes, troubled. Laurel put a sympathetic hand on her shoulder and Lois smiled at her, though it was a bit strained. It was one thing to shoot these criminals when they were charging, but to kill them when they were already down and couldn’t move? Lois didn’t know how she felt about that. But she also knew that Oliver was suspending his usual tactics because of the situation they were in, and without some superpowered help, the realistic outcome of this was that they _would_ need to kill or cripple to keep someone from attacking them from behind after they finished clearing a section. It just felt slimy, knowing people were going to die even if they were crippled by gunshots; it didn’t help any knowing that most of them were, as Oliver had pointed out, Cartel members, hitmen, members of crime families, serial killers, etc. This wasn’t like a general prison, where there was always the chance of someone being innocent because of trumped-up charges. The worst of the worst was sent to Slabside and other prisons like it. Still, there was self-defense during a fight, and then there was cold-blooded murder.

Oliver and his makeshift team approached general population, hearing men shouting and laughing in unpleasant ways. Oliver moved into position first, peering around a corner to assess the situation. “Ten men on each level, with one of our ringleaders leading each group,” he reported softly. “Hunt is leading the third floor, Gitter the second, and Vanch is directing everything on the ground floor. They also have about five guards kneeling on the ground floor. No guarantee they’re honest guards or some of Anatoli’s who didn’t get out in time. We’ll have to be careful with them, just in case. It also means at least five prisoners might have pistols, so keep in cover as much as possible.”

“Let’s get on with it,” Barnes said sourly.

“Fine,” Oliver said, stepping around the corner and finding himself faced with a prisoner, whose expression morphed into shock at the sight of Oliver. Oliver didn’t waste any time, aiming his shotgun center mass and unloading a round into the man, throwing him backward, his torso shredded and bleeding. Oliver stepped over the howling man and moved to the next man, shooting him in the head with a round from the shotgun, tearing his skull to pieces. The man’s body flopped over the railing and fell down to the ground floor. Barnes, Needham, Lois, and Laurel took aim at the five men across the way, giving Oliver covering fire as he continued moving forward.

A man came out of a cell on Oliver’s right and tackled him against the railing, only to end up with the muzzle of the shotgun right under his chin. Oliver ventilated the prisoner’s head, spattering himself with blood and brain matter in the process, and pushed the corpse off of him. He kept track of the number of people. That was three dead on this side, and four had fallen on the other side. Barnes stepped up beside Oliver as Laurel shot the fifth man across the way center mass, causing him to curl in on himself over the railing and fall to the ground floor, where his body shuddered before laying still. “The next guy is Hunt, don’t kill him,” Oliver ordered, and Barnes nodded, pulling his pistol and taking aim. A single shot later, and Hunt was wailing on the ground, clutching the same damn knee that Oliver had ruined on the docks all those months ago. Oliver smirked as he kicked Hunt in the face as he stepped past him. He and Barnes both hit the final man on the third floor with shotgun blasts.

There was a thump and a howl behind them. “That’s for the docks, you asshole,” Laurel said, withdrawing her boot from Hunt’s chest.

“Alright, let’s split up,” Oliver said. “Laurel, go with Barnes and Dusan, hit the second floor. Needham, Lois, we’re taking the ground floor.” Everyone nodded at their assignments and split up, heading to separate staircases down to the levels below. **_*1*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Laurel Lance was more than a little discomforted with leading two people who had been held on Level Two with the Huntsman in an assault on the second floor of Slabside’s general population, but she shoved it aside. “Eric Gitter is on the other side, the one with blonde hair a beard,” she told Barnes and Dusan. “Shoot him in the leg or however you can disable him. Worst case, we have to pin him in.”

“But the rest we don’t have to play nice with, right?” Barnes asked, disgruntled.

“Yes, the rest, you can shoot however you want,” Laurel replied with a sigh. She wasn’t too happy about working with Barnes and Needham either, since they were far worse than Ollie had ever been, but Oliver had decided to ally with them, and he seemed to think they were kindred spirits. She and Oliver were going to have a lot to talk about after this was over, because Oliver was _not_ like Barnes and Needham. He might see himself as a vigilante, but he was a hero, and he needed to be made to see that, because Laurel didn’t want Oliver thinking that she or anyone else saw Barnes and Needham when they looked at him. It was one thing in this situation, where they were fighting for their lives. But Needham and Barnes were planning to murder any of those who lived through these initial attacks, and Laurel knew that she needed to force the issue, because she wasn’t going to be party to cold-blooded murder. “And Barnes? If you shoot someone who’s already down and out, I’ll put a bullet in your head. You work under me, you don’t get to kill people without consequences. Ollie may have decided to let you do what you like, but he’s not the only member of the Justice League in this situation and we’re equals at the end. I won’t allow murder, not even of psychopaths.”

“We’ll see what happens, birdie,” Barnes snarked. “I don’t think you got it in you to put a bullet in my head if you’re balking at killing scumbags.” Dusan was silent.

“Just do as I say,” Laurel said, “or I’ll make sure the next place your sentenced is one where you’re locked away in solitary for eternity.” She turned and focused back on the task at hand. She took up a position against a corner, then moved into the open squeezing off a round and hitting one man in the side; he collapsed to the ground with a scream. She ducked back in, Barnes and Dusan focusing their fire on the other side. She saw Gitter go down with a round in his leg, waiting much like Hunt had, and saw Dusan wink at her. She shook her head and turned around the corner again, firing off another round and catching the man she was aiming at in the chest. Before she could duck back behind her corner, though, one of the men raised a guard’s pistol and shot at her. She felt the bullet impact the bulletproof vest she was wearing, driving the breath from her body. She ducked back behind the corner to catch her breath. It felt painful to breathe.

“Not so easy taking one in the chest as it looks,” Barnes told her as he fired off a round at the last man standing on the other side besides Gitter. “Stay here, princess; Dusan and I got this.” Barnes headed off without another word, Dusan following behind him, and Laurel grimaced as she heard the retort of Barnes’ shotgun and the rap-rap of Dusan’s pistols. She took another breath, which came easier, and then turned around the corner in time to see the last man fall.

Laurel circled around to the other side. “Hello, Eric,” she said, looking down at the moaning man in disgust. She drew back her leg and kicked him in the balls, earning a yelp from the downed man and a longer moan of pain. “That,” she said, “was for looking like you were getting off on me being hauled off to my death.” Laurel turned as Dusan and Barnes strolled up behind her. “Barnes, go up to the third floor and grab Hunt. Oliver’s gonna want these three in one place to question them.” Barnes nodded and headed off, looking disgruntled following Laurel’s orders. Something told Laurel he wasn’t used to a woman telling him what to do. “Dusan, you and I are going to drag Gitter down.” Dusan nodded. **_*2*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver Queen, Eric Needham, and Lois Lane arrived on the ground floor. “Alright, Vanch and his people know we’re coming, and we’ve got possible friendlies mixed with bad guys,” Oliver said. “Vanch is the tall guy with blonde hair and an arrogant air about him. Check your targets. Move into cells for cover.” Lois and Needham nodded, and Oliver pressed himself against a corner. “I’ll cover you. Lois first.” Lois nodded, getting ready to move, and then Oliver leaned out, firing his pistol as Lois ran to the other side of the cell block and concealed herself behind a corner there. Oliver managed to hit three of the thugs before he ducked back into cover.

He looked at Needham, who nodded, showing he was ready as bullets whizzed by where they were hiding. Oliver ducked back out, firing again as Needham ducked out of cover and moved up to the first cell on their side of the block, firing as he went. Four more went down, leaving three thugs plus Vanch. Oliver ducked into cover, as did Needham. Lois leaned out of cover and squeezed off a round, striking one of the remaining men in the chest and sending him to the ground in a spray of blood. Needham leaned out of cover as Vanch and the remaining two fired at Lois and squeezed off a pair of rounds, catching Vanch’s two remaining thugs in the chest. Oliver leaped out of cover, drawing Vanch’s attention, but fired off a shot that struck Vanch in the wrist of the hand holding the gun. He screeched in pain, clutching at his shattered, bloody wrist as the gun slipped from his fingers.

Oliver, Lois, and Needham approached the whimpering Vanch. Oliver pistol-whipped Vanch across the jaw, driving him to the ground, and then turned to face the kneeling guards, trusting that Lois, at least, would have his back. “So, what are we supposed to do with you?” he asked. “On the one hand, you might’ve been completely caught off-guard, but on the other, you might be on Knyasev’s payroll and just had the bad luck of getting caught. Though it doesn’t speak well of Anatoli that he didn’t protect the guards that belong to him.”

“He did,” one guard said bitterly. “There used to be more of us, but Knyasev came through with a bunch of guards on the way to the mess hall and pointed out some of his were being held. The rest of us knew some of the guards were on the take, but not the extent. We were just doing our jobs and trying to get by, didn’t want to make waves.”

“So, you’re not Anatoli’s, but you knew he was basically in charge of the prison and ignored it because you didn’t want to make waves,” Oliver said. The guard nodded glumly. “All five of you, in there,” he said, pointing at an open cell. They exchanged glances. “Now.” They grudgingly stood and moved into the cell. Oliver pulled it closed behind him, the locking mechanism catching. “You’ll be safe enough in there, and I’ll know you aren’t going to sneak up behind us and shoot us in the back,” Oliver said as Laurel, Dusan, and Barnes arrived, dragging Hunt and Gitter. They were thrown to kneel beside the moaning Vanch.

Oliver approached the three, Laurel standing at his side. He gestured at Hunt with his gun. “Talk?”

“A-About what?” Hunt asked, terrified.

“What else does Anatoli have planned?” Oliver said. “Is he going to get people from outside let in to reinforce his position? How many of his men are armed with weapons?”

“I-I dunno, I swear,” Hunt stammered. “And I’m telling the truth this time, so don’t shoot me! I swear, I’m telling the truth! Knyasev assigned us to control gen pop in case you came through, capture you when you did, if we could.” Hunt looked around glumly. “Guess that won’t happen.”

“No, it won’t,” Oliver said. “Gitter? Vanch? You two have anything to add?” Vanch groaned in response. “I thought not. Let’s toss them in a cell and be done with it.”

“I thought you said we could do what we wanted,” Barnes said, annoyed.

“I heard your argument with Laurel,” Oliver replied. “I’ve done a lot of horrible things in my life, and a part of me will always think of doing those same horrible things when I’m outnumbered. But Laurel’s arguments reminded me of one thing: I’ve killed someone who was helpless before and it’s haunted me. So, from now on, if you want to kill someone, do it the first time, because once they’re down and can’t attack us anymore, they’re safe as far as I’m concerned.” Cyrus Vanch snatched up a pistol in his left hand and whirled, aiming at Oliver. Laurel sent a Canary Cry at him, causing his shot to go wild, and Oliver turned and fired, catching him in the head. Vanch fell back, a bullet hole in his head, eyes already glazing over in death. “Case in point,” Oliver said.

“Guys,” Lois said, her voice pained. Oliver and Laurel turned quickly and found Lois leaning up against the wall between cells, holding a hand to her right shoulder, blood oozing out between her fingers.

“Damn it,” Oliver said, moving to check on Lois. He slowly pulled her hand away from the wound. He pulled her forward slightly, noting the blood staining the concrete behind her. “Well, the good news is that it’s a through and through,” he said, shedding his leather jacket and ripping the sleeve of his muscle shirt off. “We can bind it to stop the bleeding, but do you think you can keep going? Or do you want to stay back here? You should be safe now.”

“I can keep going,” Lois said after a moment as Oliver bound her wound with his shirt sleeve and slipped his jacket back on. “Put I’ll only be able to shoot with one hand.” She laughed bitterly. “Clark is so going to say, ‘I told you so’.”

“So, we’re going to just throw the rest of this scum into a cell and move on?” Barnes asked.

“Yes,” Oliver said shortly, “and even if you think Laurel might not shoot you, _I_ will if you disobey my orders. I don’t care what you do with the scum when we’re actively fighting. But once they’re down and unable to move… Unless they become a threat, like trying what Vanch did, they’re off-limits.”

“Fine,” Barnes grumbled. “But if we get overrun because of this, it’s on you.”

“Fair enough,” Oliver said, knowing that Barnes was probably only accepting this because it was _Oliver_ who was saying it and if he had been anyone else, he’d have been given a giant ‘fuck you’ by the Gotham vigilante. “Now, let’s get the rest of this scum locked up.”

**_*DC*_ **

In the security booth located in the mess hall of Slabside Penitentiary, Anatoli Knyasev stood watching the security monitors, tracking his former friend’s progress. Oliver had fashioned himself allies during his time on Level Two, which was unnerving but not surprising. Oliver had always fashioned himself allies where he could find them, such as when he fashioned Anatoli as his ally both on Lian Yu and in Russia. Anatoli had come to realize that Oliver had more or less used their friendship in Russia to do what he went there to do, and he was not happy that he had been so fooled by Oliver, which was one of the main reasons for this move. The other reason, of course, was because he was beginning to lose his grip on the Bratva in part because Oliver Queen remained free, alive, and making trouble for criminals everywhere. The Bratva thought Anatoli weak for allowing his friendship with the ‘American puppy’ as Gregor had called him to cloud his vision of their organization, and if he wanted to remain Pakhan, he needed to show he was capable of the ruthlessness required. Killing Oliver, the woman he loved, and the woman who wrote such flattering news pieces about him and his exploits for the _Daily Planet_ would certainly do that.

“He just wiped out over thirty people,” Gregory Kullens, a member of Tempest and one of Anatoli’s strongest allies in this endeavor (hence his presence in the security booth), said fretfully. “How do we know he won’t do the same to everyone he comes across, including us?”

“Because not even with armaments does he have enough bullets for everyone,” Anatoli said. “By time they reach mess hall, they will be out of bullets and shotgun shells. It will be down to physical confrontation.”

“You’re sure?” Emily Pollard asked. “Queen tends to surprise people who underestimate him.” Pollard’s lips twisted sourly as she remembered her own bout of underestimating Queen, which had led to her arrest. Her two compatriots who had been arrested at that time, James Midas and Justin Claybourne, had been sentenced here like she had and been killed. Most people hadn’t connected her with them and so she had been safe. By the time people knew about what she had been arrested for, the news that she had been a member of Tempest had broken and Knyasev had made his alliance with each member of Tempest, with the stated goal of one day avenging themselves on Oliver Queen.

“I am quite sure,” Anatoli replied. “And even if they have weapon when they arrive, they will not have enough bullets.”

“What about that bitch’s Canary Cry?” Thaddeus Cable asked. “I know what that feels like. You’re left dazed and deafened, and that’s just the simple version. Just because she doesn’t kill outside of prison doesn’t mean she won’t use it to kill in here, where it’s kill or be killed, and there’s _nothing_ we can do to stop that. No one’s gonna get close enough to gag her, like you suggested. I’ve seen her in action. Combine that with Queen being here and how protective he is of the people he cares about, and we’re fucked if we even think about touching Lance.”

“Do not lose faith in plan,” Anatoli said firmly. “Before day is out, Oliver Queen will be dead. Laurel Lance will be dead. Lois Lane will be dead.” Anatoli turned back to the security console and watched as his friend and his makeshift team left general population, heading for the medical wing.

**_*DC*_ **

**The Vanishing Point**

The Legends and the Justice League of 2266 had fought their way through over a hundred of the Council’s security forces and had a few close calls (at least for those vulnerable to the Council agents’ weapons), but they had finally made it to the central power chamber for the Oculus. “ **I’ll examine the power source, find the vulnerability,** ” Chronos said, letting his cannon hang at his side and he walked up the ramp and opened the panel, beginning to examine the circuitry and design of the power source.

“So, here we are, in the belly of the beast,” Nightwing said to White Canary. “Isn’t that typically when the ground falls out from under you?”

“It’s gonna take the Council time to get more people together, and by then, we should already be done,” White Canary replied. “Still, couldn’t hurt to be cautious and keep an eye out. Besides, knowing those assholes, they’ve got a quicker way into this room from somewhere else and we took the long way.”

“Bad guys _always_ have a quicker way,” Nightwing agreed. “I’m gonna go see if I can’t find their secret entrance.” He walked off, whistling to himself, and White Canary shook her head.

“Is he always like that?” Green Arrow asked.

“Pretty much,” White Canary said. “To be honest, most of us have kind of taken a light-hearted approach to this mission. Mainly cuz sometimes we’ve had to do some nasty stuff.”

“Like what?” Black Canary asked.

“You’ve heard of Cortex?” White Canary asked grimly.

“Yeah, he’s the psycho that saw the end of the laws that protected the likes of The Joker,” Green Arrow said.

“Well, those same laws saw Vandal Savage locked away until he died of extreme old age,” White Canary said. “So, the Council decided to kill Cortex. We had to save him, even had to stand by and watch as he took Elise Sattler. That particular mission changed everything for Barry and I. We finally got why Oliver sent us on this mission. Time travel isn’t fun or exciting. It’s horrifying, especially responsible time travel. Ollie thinks he’s a hypocrite, and he probably is, but from what I’ve been able to tell, he tried to keep the timeline he remembered intact until he had to kill Thawne.”

“Man, that sucks, having to let a psychopath do their work,” Black Canary said emphatically. “I’m sorry you had to do that.”

“Which is why I’m looking forward to getting back to 2013,” White Canary said. “At least then, if I run across a psycho, I can deal with him. I miss being able to do that.”

“ **I’ve got it,** ” Chronos said. “ **This circuit here controls the power flow, like a dam. Hold it down, and you choke off the power flow, which builds up until ‘boom’. But the problem is it will have to be held down manually. Someone has to stay here and hold it down.** ”

“That’s a complication,” Rip mused.

“No, it’s not,” Superman returned. “All of you except Kara and I are vulnerable to a blast of any kind. Kara and I can survive the initial blast and race ahead of it, getting back to the _Waverider_ with enough time for us to get out of here. But you should probably warn the fleet that the Vanishing Point is about to blow.”

“Gideon?” Rip prompted.

“ _Sending the message now, Captain,_ ” Gideon said in all of their comms.

Superman, meanwhile, turned a firm eye on Supergirl. “I’ll be doing this,” he said firmly.

“Kal…” Supergirl groaned in exasperation.

“I know, you’re over 200 years old, but to me, you’re still that little girl clinging to my cape as Fort Rozz’s escapees race towards us,” Superman said. “And because of that, I’m always going to be protective of you.”

“Fine,” Supergirl sulked.

Superman strode up to Chronos. “Show me what to do,” he said. Within a couple of minutes, the Legends and the 2266 Justice League were on their way back to the _Waverider_ while Superman held down the circuit.

Ten minutes later, as the _Waverider_ hovered just inside the atmosphere of the station, an explosion rocked the station, and Superman flew into the hold of the _Waverider_ , hitting the button to close the door. “I’m in!” he called into his comms, and the _Waverider_ peeled away from the Vanishing Point as more explosions ripped through it. The _Waverider_ met up with the rest of the fleet.

Rip opened a general hail to the fleet. “This is Rip Hunter,” he said. “Thank you, all of you, for standing with me. We will have to change our tactics without the Vanishing Point. Code Alpha-Zeta-0-1. Stand ready.” Rip turned the _Waverider_ away from the fleet and flew off into space. “Gideon, begin making the calculations to take us back to 2266.”

“What was that code you gave them?” Sara asked.

“It’s a code that tells the Time Masters that they are to act independently for the time being,” Rip replied, “but that I will contact them when I can to discuss how we move forward. I wish to speak to Mr. Queen when we get back to 2013. He may have some insight into what to do.” Again, some of the Legends looked confused while the 2266 Justice League, Barry, and Sara all had knowing looks on their faces.

“ _Calculations complete, Captain,_ ” Gideon said.

“Then it’s time to take our guests home,” Rip said, and engaged the time drive. **_*3*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* Writing this first sequence was interesting because, as pointed out in past chapters, Oliver is basically in survival mode like he was from the time he landed on Lian Yu to the time he left it for the last time, and so his morality is more than a little skewed, in contrast to Lois and Laurel, who don’t have the same sort of survival mode as Oliver.
> 
> *2* Writing a command scene from Laurel’s perspective was fun because she’s a very different vigilante from Oliver, and I wanted to showcase that with how she directed Barnes in this scene. As for Barnes’ comments? As Laurel basically guessed at the end of this segment, Barnes is more than a little sexist.
> 
> *3* The thing about the Legends’ segments is that it would’ve been rinse-repeat of the first fight scene each time they came up against the Council’s forces, which wasn’t really useful and would’ve been very boring for me to write, so I decided to skip including a Legends segment until they would’ve gotten to the Oculus Power Chamber. I hope the way things played out pleased everyone. I wanted to give it a happier ending than Legends S1 had re: the destruction of the Vanishing Point.


	54. Showdown, Part 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So, here we are, the end of the episode. For those keeping count, that means there’s only three episodes left until we wrap up Season 1 and this volume. It’s going to be a fun ride. *grins*

**April 24 th, 2013**

**12:30 p.m.**

**Slabside Penitentiary – Level One**

Oliver Queen stopped his makeshift team outside of the mess hall and mentally assessed the carnage they had left behind them. There had been no survivors from the group from the medical wing, in part because there had been nowhere to lock them up but also because every last one of them kept trying to attack the team. Brickwell had taken the most punishment; bullets in both legs and his stomach before Barnes had taken off most of his head with a point-blank shotgun blast. By comparison, The Count had fallen pretty quickly, bullet through the heart courtesy of Oliver. Then had come the fifty men spread from the medical wing to the mess hall, and like in the medical wing, there hadn’t been any survivors, all of them trying their best to kill Oliver or one of his makeshift team. Oliver knew that both he and Laurel would be haunted by what they had had to do today to survive, and the day wasn’t over yet. There was still the mess hall with Anatoli, Tempest, and assorted goons to get through before they could call in the cavalry, not that there’d be much need for it.

“Alright, Lois, this time, I want you to wait out here, keep your phone ready for when we get the switch flipped,” Oliver said. “I’m going directly for the security booth. Dusan, you’re with me. Laurel, Barnes, Needham, on the ground floor. Do whatever it takes to keep them from overrunning you. Everyone get what they’re doing?” All five of them nodded, Barnes and Needham with eager expressions while Dusan, Laurel, and Lois were more reserved in their acknowledgement. “Alright, let’s get doing this.” Oliver kicked open the doors to the mess hall and entered, looking around. They were being surrounded almost as soon as they entered.

“Oliver Queen,” Anatoli said over the loudspeaker. “I have waited long time for this. Now, you pay for every minute I spend in this hell.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that, Anatoli,” Oliver said, before whirling and firing his shotgun one, two, three times, blasting each targeted man back with their torsos shredded by the shotgun shells. Oliver tossed the shotgun to Barnes before rushing through the opening, followed quickly by Dusan, and scrambling up a pillar the way he had been taught to the walkways surrounding the mess hall. Oliver and Dusan pulled themselves over the railing and moved to engage the men between them and the security booth, all of whom Oliver recognized as belonging to the Bratva. Oliver didn’t bother with warning them in Russian like he had in times past; they were long past the point of issuing warnings. Oliver met the first man with a knife-hand strike to his throat, bent him over in a backwards headlock, and snapped his neck.

As the body dropped, Oliver moved on to the next target, delivering quick, brutal blows to the man’s ribs, a kick to his groin, and then snapped his neck when he doubled over. Oliver didn’t even spare a glance to notice that Dusan had already taken out three with his almost-supernatural speed and agility, delivering a spinning kick to one man’s head and knocking him out. The next man moved to grapple Oliver in his huge arms, but the Emerald Archer ducked under those widespread arms and delivered a quick strike to the man’s armpit, causing him to grunt in pain even as Oliver finished circling around him, at which point he delivered a series of quick, painful blows to the man’s kidneys, driving him to the ground. Oliver wrapped his arm around the man’s sizeable neck and put pressure on it from behind. The man staggered to his feet, tossing Oliver about as he thrashed in place, fingernails digging into the leather of Oliver’s jacket as he snarled in a strangled fashion, Oliver kept up the pressure and the man finally collapsed to his knees again, face purple from a lack of oxygen, and Oliver let him drop.

By this point, Dusan had finished with the rest of the men who had been guarding the booth where Tempest and Anatoli waited. “The rest is up to me,” Oliver said, catching Dusan’s eye. “I want Tempest to continue to suffer in this place, not be given the quick mercy of death. I’ll only kill them if I need to. You should go while you have the chance. Once I hit the switch, Lois is going to call in Superman, and he won’t acknowledge the deal we made.”

“Much evil has been cleansed from the world this day,” Dusan exulted. “My father will be pleased. We will meet again someday, Oliver Queen. I am sure of it.” Dusan leaped down to the ground floor, killing a couple of men on his way out. Oliver turned to the security booth, squared his shoulders, and used the guard’s keycard he had in his possession to bypass the lock on the security booth door. He opened it and walked in… only to look down at the shiv that was shoved into the bulletproof vest he was wearing wielded by Emily Pollard.

“Why am I not surprised that you’re the one whose adapted to prison yard rules the quickest?” Oliver asked sardonically before delivering a solid left hook to the woman’s jaw, sending her spinning and falling to the floor. Oliver dodged out of the way as Wilhelmina Hollinger tried to hit him with a makeshift bat, plucking the shiv still stuck in his vest from where it was buried, blocking the next attack from Hollinger by grabbing the makeshift bat as it descended even though that caused his hand to go numb, and struck with the shiv, burying it in Hollinger’s neck. She fell back, hand going to her neck to try and stop the flow of blood. Oliver adjusted his grip on the makeshift bat so he was wielding it, and delivered quick, crippling blows to the male members of Tempest, most of whom cowered away from his attacks. That left Anatoli, standing beside the control console. “It’s just you and me now, Anatoli,” Oliver said softly. “Like it should have been at the hangar.”

“On this day, one shall stand, one shall fall,” Anatoli declared with a snarl and a glint in his eye that spoke of a degree of madness, which Oliver wasn’t really surprised to see. You would _have_ to be mad to organize a prison riot to try and kill two members of the Justice League considering what the _rest_ of the League, especially Arthur and Diana, would do in retaliation. Anatoli charged at Oliver, who ducked agilely around his former friend and managed to flip the switch before Anatoli delivered a powerful shot to Oliver’s left kidney that he felt even through the body armor that he wore. Trusting that Lois would be calling in Clark soon, Oliver whirled and struck Anatoli in the side with the bat, earning a snarl of pain and rage from the Pakhan of the Russian Bratva. Oliver didn’t let up, having no intention of this being a fair fight, delivering quick, decisive blows to Anatoli, crippling him. Finally, Anatoli collapsed to his knees, both eyes swelling shut, jaw broken, one arm broken, and his femurs shattered by the repeated battering Oliver delivered.

Oliver looked down at the man he had once called brother in regret and sorrow. “I wish that it hadn’t come to this, Anatoli,” he said quietly. “You were my friend, my brother. We went through hell together. We defeated Kovar together. But at the end of the day, I’m a vigilante, and you’re nothing more than a gangster.” Oliver caught Anatoli in a backwards headlock. “And I can’t give you another chance to do something like this,” Oliver whispered as he snapped Anatoli’s neck, closing his eyes as he let the body of his one-time friend and brother drop. He hoped that he wouldn’t have to do the same thing with Slade one day, that he could bring back at least one of his brothers from the abyss of villainy.

Just as Anatoli’s body fell, Superman crashed down through the ceiling and instantly began speeding around in the cafeteria, knocking those who remained alive out, including Barnes and Needham. Oliver moved to out of the security booth and stood at the railing, looking down at the carnage. “Glad you could make it, Superman,” he called.

“I should’ve insisted on coming along from the beginning,” Superman said dryly as Lois entered, Laurel holstering her weapons as Oliver leaped down from the second level. “Come on. Let’s go see what the warden has to say about this. I sent a message to Diana, and she’s going to be here soon, after she rallies the cops from the nearest town or city. She is guessing there’s going to be a lot of arrests made today.”

“Oh, yeah,” Oliver said darkly. “Slabside is rotten to the core.” **_*1*_**

**_*DC*_ **

**March 25 th, 2266**

**8:30 a.m.**

**Hall of Justice**

Sara Lance hugged her many-times great-nephew and great-niece goodbye, smiling. “It was wonderful to meet both of you, and to see that Ollie and Laurel’s legacy is strong all around,” she said. “I mean, I knew they lived through everything that happened to them because we met in 2046, but it’s still nice to know that who they are, the values they had, lived on in future generations. Both of you should be damn proud of yourselves. You carried yourselves like Green Arrow and Black Canary should, based on what I know of my sister and future brother-in-law. Which,” she added with a grin, “is quite a bit.”

“It was great to meet you as well, Aunt Sara,” Laurel Sara said as she returned Sara’s hug. “Hearing about Grandma Laurel and Grandpa Oliver from someone who _knew_ them, and about your own adventures, was the story of a lifetime.”

“Yeah, Aunt Sara, it’s been awesome,” Darius said, returning her hug as well. “I know some of this is all going to change once you go back to 2013, maybe all of it will, but it’s been exciting, and I’m sure that soon enough I’ll have read your journals and biography a couple of times, too.”

“I’m sure there’s some degree of creepiness in that statement, if we weren’t family,” Sara said teasingly, and Darius flushed. Sara laughed throatily. “Oh, yeah, you’re too easy,” she said. “Just like Ollie when we were younger. Of course, Laurel was the same. The things Tommy and I did to get those two blushing like a fire truck…”

“Huh, you mean Tommy Merlyn?” Darius asked.

“Yup,” Sara said. She noticed the odd looks on the faces of Darius and Laurel Sara. “Let me guess, you can’t tell me what’s wrong with Tommy, though honestly, I can guess. I know what the League of Assassins does to people, remember? So did Oliver and Laurel. They’re not expecting Tommy to be their friend when they see him again.”

“Still can’t get into specifics,” Laurel Sara said apologetically. “Like we’ve said, the family edict is pretty much ingrained in us from birth.”

Barry Allen, meanwhile, was being a total nerd and taking his picture with Superman and Supergirl in front of the Hall of Justice. “You do realize you won’t actually be able to _show_ that picture to anyone?” Superman asked him.

“Yeah, I know,” Barry said. “But I figure I gotta get proof for myself that this happened, even if it’s just a picture.”

“You’re going to have your armor and weapons,” Supergirl pointed out.

“Yeah, but this is proof I can show Oliver and Laurel,” Barry said. “Maybe even my Dad, if I ever get the courage to tell him what I’ve _really_ been up to all these months. Especially since he could probably take it with all the stuff that’s happened by the time we get back.”

“Fair point,” Superman acknowledged. “It’s been nice meeting you, Barry. I’m sure that when my younger self meets you, he’ll be pleased to call you his friend. Oliver always said you had a greater destiny and that’s why he knew you would come back in the end. He didn’t tell us _what_ that destiny was, just said it was something special.”

“Well, he told me, but if he didn’t tell you, I suppose I shouldn’t,” Barry said apologetically.

“It’s alright, we’re used to the secrecy surrounding the formation of the Legends and their mission,” Supergirl said cheerfully. “Of course, considering how much has been written about the time period surrounding the creation of the Justice League, odds are the Legends are going to make it into the history books once you get back. Cuz I don’t think any of you are just going to go back to boring old lives, and people are gonna wonder where heroes like Chronos and White Canary came from.”

“Yeah, if I can ever call Chronos a hero,” Barry said. “After everything I did as Chronos for the Council, I worry I’ll never erase that stain from my soul.”

“Oliver Queen is proof that you can,” Superman said softly. “Ask him about the stain on his soul someday, and know that in the end, Oliver proved himself to be among the very best of us.”

“That sounds ominous,” Barry said worriedly.

“It’s not meant to be,” Superman said. “Sorry. I just meant that he cemented his place in history as a hero by being who he was at his core, the Green Arrow, and that you can do the same, whether that’s as Chronos or as whatever your special destiny makes you into.”

“Thanks, Superman,” Barry said, offering his hand. Superman shook it. Supergirl, being who she was, hugged Barry instead of settling for a simple handshake. “It was nice meeting you, too,” he said as he and Supergirl pulled apart. “It’s gonna be weird meeting you as a kid now, though.”

“She’s still a kid at heart,” Superman couldn’t help but say, earning a blue-eyed glare from his baby cousin/adoptive daughter.

“Alright, everyone, it’s time to go,” Rip said, clapping his hands together. “We’ve made enough of a footprint in 2266 as it is. You all have lives to get back to, and I need to speak with Mr. Queen at some point about the future of the Time Masters now that the Council’s been destroyed. Let’s get on the _Waverider_ and back to 2013.”

**_*DC*_ **

**April 24 th, 2013**

**5:45 p.m.**

**Starling City**

The _Waverider_ settled on the rooftop of the building in Starling City where the Lances, Queens, and Allens had made their home, and the hatch opened. Sara and Barry exited with their suitcases and gear packed away in a duffel bag and trunk, respectively. Rip had asked them to pass along a message to Oliver that he would speak to him later this evening at the Quiver, after he had returned everyone to their homes. They had promised to pass along the message, especially since they needed to see Oliver first to make sure their gear got put away in the Quiver since there was no way Barry was going to take the trunk containing his Chronos gear to his and his dad’s apartment, because Henry would assume it was full of souvenirs from wherever Barry had been on sabbatical and it would be very awkward if Henry found out what was inside, especially when, not if but when, Chronos started helping Green Arrow and Black Canary alongside White Canary.

The _Waverider_ lifted off and the two watched it go. “It’s so _weird_ being back in our own time,” Sara finally said. Barry nodded in agreement. “I still remember what the city looked like from the sky when we dropped in on 2046. It’s so _weird_ seeing it like this and knowing how much it’s going to change, like how the name on Queen Consolidated is going to change and their building is going to get a few more floors, if I remember right.”

“I think it’s more likely they had a whole new office building built,” Barry said. “Kind of hard to add onto a building that’s already completed. Plus, I’m pretty sure Queen Industries was _wider_ as well as taller.” He studied the skyline for a moment, focusing on the Queen Consolidated skyscraper. “Yeah, it was definitely wider and taller. Because I’m pretty sure we landed on _this_ rooftop in 2046. But maybe I’m wrong. We only got a glimpse out of the _Waverider_ , after all.”

“Yeah,” Sara said wistfully. “Well, come on, Barry. We need to go see Ollie. The sooner we do that, the sooner I can see my sister and we can talk about everything that’s happened. Well, once she gets off from C.N.R.I., anyways. I might have to go visit her, make sure she’s been eating, or at least that Ollie’s been bringing her food.” Sara gave Barry a dry look. “You’re not the first workaholic I’ve had to do that for.” Barry rolled his eyes and pulled on the handle of his trunk, beginning to wheel it behind him. Sara did the same with her suitcase, the both of them with duffel bags containing their clothes (Barry) and vigilante outfit (Sara) wrapped around their torsos as they headed for the rooftop access.

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver Queen sighed as he leaned back on the couch with Laurel, the two of them feeling the ache from their brutal travel through Slabside in every movement of their bodies. “Remind me to _never_ accompany Lois on a simple interview with someone I put away ever again,” he told Laurel.

“Do the same for me and it’s a deal,” Laurel said. “I kind of want to crack open a beer in celebration, though. I know it’s wrong but knowing that he’s not going to ever be a threat again is freeing.”

“I’m assuming you’re referring to Wolcott,” Oliver said knowingly. They had heard from the investigators just before they left that both Alexi and Wolcott had had their throats slashed open when the police went down to Level Two, and there was only one person who could have done that. “Honestly, I’m not sure why Dusan did that. It could’ve simply been a matter of cleansing more evil from the world, but then, he left Gitter and Hunt alive, so maybe he was paying us back for helping him escape by making sure people we’ve tangled with won’t bother us ever again.”

“Is it bad that I don’t care why Dusan killed him, that I’m just happy he’s gone?” Laurel asked, looking up at Oliver from where she was leaning into his side.

“No,” Oliver said. “I don’t regret the fact that Malcolm Merlyn, Ricardo Diaz, Cayden James, Brick, the Count, Alexi, and Anatoli will never be a threat because I either killed them or allowed them to be killed. Wolcott has haunted your nightmares for months, now, Laurel, and if his death means that you dream a little easier, than you should be happy he’s gone, because it means one less nightmare you have to suffer.”

“You know what, forget beer,” Laurel said. “This calls for wine.”

“One glass,” Oliver agreed. “We still have patrol this evening.”

“Oh, I am not looking forward to that,” Laurel groaned. “Especially after the day we’ve had. But these are the lives we’ve chosen. They don’t really come with days of rest, do they?”

“I’m afraid not,” Oliver said, standing. “You rest right here. I’ll get the wine. White or red?”

“White,” Laurel said after a moment. “Red will remind me too much of all of the blood we saw today.” Oliver nodded, leaning down and kissing her before heading towards the fridge. Before he reached it, though, there was a knock on his front door. Puzzled, because he didn’t expect any visitors tonight, Oliver went to the door and opened it. As recognition of who was standing on the other side of the door, grinning like loons at him, set in, an answering smile lit his face. “Come in,” he told Barry and Sara. “We were just sitting down for a celebratory drink. This’ll make the occasion doubly-special.”

“Celebratory drink?” Sara questioned as she and Barry crossed the threshold.

“Sara!?” Laurel said, having looked over to see who was at the door and shooting up as fast as she could, wincing as her tender muscles shifted too quickly. But she ignored the pain, heading right for her little sister, who dropped her duffel bag down and accepted Laurel’s hug, returning it just as fiercely. Tears of joy shone in both women’s eyes as they hugged. “Oh, I’m _so_ happy to see you,” Laurel half-wept. “I’ve been so worried about you.”

“I’m fine, Laurel,” Sara said wetly, pulling away and wiping at her eyes, Laurel doing the same. “Oh, I have so much to tell you. But I’m surprised to find you here. I figured you’d still be hunched over your desk and I’d have to drag you away.”

“Ah, yeah,” Laurel said awkwardly as Oliver and Barry, who had shook hands and gotten the wine poured while the sisters reunited, came up to them with a wine glass in each hand. “About that. I don’t work at C.N.R.I. anymore.”

“What, the D.A.’s office finally poached you?” Sara asked, raising her eyebrows as she took the proffered glass from Barry, raising an eyebrow at the white wine seeing as Oliver and Laurel typically drank red wine when they drank it. “I didn’t think they could ever get you to leave C.N.R.I.”

“They didn’t,” Oliver said quietly.

“Then why…” Sara trailed off, confused.

“I’m not a lawyer anymore,” Laurel said. “I was permanently disbarred. I was offered a choice: be a lawyer, or be Black Canary. I chose Black Canary because I can do more good as a hero than as an attorney. But I still work with C.N.R.I., helping them close cases, and the man I tapped to replace me is just as passionate, if not more so, than I was.”

“You shouldn’t have had to make that choice,” Sara said. “You _loved_ being a lawyer.”

“I did,” Laurel agreed, “but I love being Black Canary more.”

“So, what do you do now?” Barry asked.

“During the day, I work at Lance Floral,” Laurel said, giving her sister a grin. Sara smiled, glad to know her flower shop had been in good hands for a little while. She wasn’t sure if she trusted Thea and Roy not to have burned it down during one of their arguments.

“So, what is it we’re celebrating?” Sara asked. “Besides us coming back, I mean. Ollie said you were getting ready for a celebratory drink, anyways.”

“Well, today, we had to accompany Lois Lane to Slabside so she could interview Anatoli Knyasev for her book about Ollie,” Laurel said.

“Yeah, those sections were fun to read,” Sara said with a teasing grin. At Laurel and Oliver’s raised eyebrows, she shrugged. “There’s a copy on the _Waverider_. We all read it. You’ve sure been through a lot of shit, Ollie.”

“I suppose that’s true enough,” Oliver said. “Anyways, turns out today was one big elaborate trap on Anatoli’s part to try and kill us. Something tells me _that_ didn’t make it into the book, otherwise you’d have had an ugly look on your face right from when we said Anatoli’s name, like you got right now.” Sara did, indeed, have an ugly look on her face. “Long story short, we ended up having to fight for our lives through Slabside, and there’s a whole lot less prisoners there now than there was this morning before we arrived. Anatoli is dead. So is the Huntsman and a few others we’ve dealt with, personally or peripherally.”

“No wonder you’re celebrating,” Sara said. “Less nightmare fodder for Laurel.” Laurel glared at her sister. “What? You’re telling me it’s not true?”

After a moment, Laurel sighed and nodded. “I guess it’s true enough,” she said.

“See?” Sara said smugly.

“So, you two are back, and a whole bunch of our enemies are dead,” Oliver said. “I think I have the perfect toast for this moment.” He raised his glass. “To new beginnings.”

“New beginnings,” the other three echoed, clinking their glasses with Oliver’s and then sipping at the wine, enjoying its flavor and the joy of their reunion. **_*3*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Final Slabside Body Count: Anatoli Knyasev, Alexi Leonov, Hadrian Wolcott, Dr. Parker, Ricardo Diaz, Cyrus Vanch, Wilhelmina Hollinger, Tony Zucco, The Count, Daniel Brickwell, and dozens of generic goons. 
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* Yes, I killed Anatoli. It was saddening, but the fact of the matter is, in the world as it stands, he is completely outmatched and unlikely to be a threat to ANYONE. He’d achieve the same status as Prometheus in 2046 did, being deemed not worth killing by Oliver and a minor annoyance only. Better that, like Malcolm, he go out on a high note rather than become a joke.
> 
> *2* Writing this final scene for the Legends’ farewell to the JL of 2266 was interesting. Barry and Cisco took pictures of being at S.T.A.R. Labs on Earth-2, so I can totally see Barry geeking out and taking a picture with Kal and Kara, even if it’s just for his personal collection. Plus, I had to have one last Kal-Kara family moment before leaving 2266.
> 
> *3* Initially, I was going to save the Legends returning and Barry and Sara’s reunion with Oliver and Laurel for the next episode. The next episode was initially going to take place on May 1st to coincide with Episode 21 in Arrow S1, but as it happens it’ll pick up right where we left off here. The way this chapter played out, it didn’t make sense to draw this out. So, I hope everyone enjoyed the reunion. The bulk of it will be in the next episode, but I thought I’d tease a bit of it, end the episode on a high note.


	55. Reunions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Okay, so the past few months that I’ve been writing this story, I’ve done a lot of planning and such. Thing is, for me, that takes the fun out of writing, and so I decided this morning to throw away the plan, as Leonard Snart would say. That means I’m not going to wait until an episode is finished to post new chapters of this story or any other story, and that I’m going back to winging it. Planning things out? That’s the way some people work, and while I see the attraction, all it did was stress me the fuck out. I’m a pantser as a writer. I always have been. And it’s time to get back to basics.

Dick Grayson’s lips twitched up into a soft smile as he headed for the front door of the stately old Wayne Manor, his duffel bag over one shoulder as he made his way up the drive. As he had months before, Dick let himself into the manor, and like before, he found Alfred Pennyworth dusting. “Master Grayson, you’ve returned,” Alfred said, coming down the steps and taking the duffel bag from Dick with practiced ease. “I’ll put this in your old room. He’s downstairs.” Dick nodded and headed for the library entrance of the Batcave before making his way down. He found Bruce was currently working on some new gear centered around a green mineral of some kind, and Jason was practicing with his own bo staff and stopped when he saw Dick.

“Well, look what the cat dragged in,” the younger man said.

“Jason,” Dick greeted with an easy smile. “How’ve things been?”

“You mean other than the big fucking invasion of alien monsters that tore apart Gotham along with one of his exes?” Jason asked, nodding in Bruce’s direction. “Gotham’s still struggling to deal with what happened. There’s been a lot of activity. We’ve been out almost every night, and whenever we’re not out, we’re here working on weapons to deal with the army of Kryptonians that’s hanging over the world’s head.”

“I’m guessing that’s what the green rock is for,” Dick said.

“It’s called Kryptonite,” Bruce said grimly from where he had finished crafting some kind of grenade. He pulled off his gloves and came to meet Jason and Dick. “So, you’re back. I assume this means this Council has been dealt with.”

“Oh, yeah, we blew those bastards to hell,” Dick said with a nod. Jason grinned. “And you, you old gargoyle? I hear you joined, gasp, a _team_.”

“I’m still spry enough that I can kick your ass if I need to,” Bruce said, eyeing his oldest ‘son’.

“I missed you, too, Bruce,” Dick said. Bruce said nothing, but his lips twitched. It _was_ good to see Dick again. “I figured I could stay here for a couple of days since everything’s shut down in Bludhaven. Besides, since you’re the only member of the Justice League I personally know, I figured you’re the one I should talk to about joining, even if I have to get vetted by Queen in the end.”

“Good luck,” Jason snorted. “I’ve been trying to convince him to let me join, but he says I’m not ready.”

“And you’re not,” Bruce said. He eyed Dick. “Are you sure about this, Dick? The Justice League… it faces many challenges. Oliver provided us with vital information recently and it’s got all of us working towards preparing for these things.”

“What vital information?” Dick asked. Bruce said nothing. “Still the secret-keeper, eh, Bruce?”

“I’m sure Queen will want you to know the information once you join the League,” Bruce said, ignoring the rhetorical question for what it was, “but first you have to officially join. Once that’s done, you’ll know what I know. And what my plans for every scenario are.”

“Same old, same old,” Dick murmured. “You’re always prepared for everything, aren’t you?”

“Not everything,” Bruce said darkly, looking at a screen capture blown up on a nearby wall, of Gotham in flames. “But I’m getting there.” **_*1*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver Queen smiled softly as he held his wine glass by the stem, sipping at it slowly before lowering it. “So, I guess I should ask whether you understand now why I sent you on the trip,” Oliver said quietly. “Like I said before you left, I know I’m a fucking hypocrite, but I wanted you to go so if you two ever do have the chance to change time, you have the knowledge that I didn’t have when I set everything in motion to create this new and terrifying world that we live in. So, was it worth it?”

“Yeah,” Sara said quietly. “There was this mission in Gotham City, 2066. The Council was going to kill a man that became the reason for Vandal Savage being incarcerated in Belle Reve Penitentiary until he died of extreme old age. The thing is, he became the reason because he was a fucking serial killer. We had to stand by and watch him take the victim that turned everything around, a senator’s daughter studying at Gotham University, and not intervene. That’s when we realized the terrible price of time travel and changing history. If we had saved that girl in the moment, we would have felt good, would have saved a life, but we might’ve condemned thousands more to die at Savage’s hands. It was also then that we decided we weren’t going to continue on with time travel after Savage and the Council were dealt with. We would rather be able to intervene and stop men like that then having to let them go.”

“I’m sorry you had to experience that,” Oliver said. “Allowing a necessary evil to exist to prevent a greater evil from coming to pass is unfortunately something I’m very familiar with.” Oliver studied the two of them. “So, what’s this we? I thought I told Barry to stay on the ship.”

“Yeah, I did that,” Barry said dryly. “Then a future version of me blasted a hole in the _Waverider_ and sent me and Sara flying into the Temporal Zone. The Council found me and brainwashed me. Remember how you said Chronos wouldn’t kill me, Oliver? You were right. He couldn’t kill me because he _was_ me. I’m Chronos. That’s what’s in the trunk, my armor and weapons. I did a lot of horrible things as Chronos, Oliver, and I need to try and move passed that, do some good, make Chronos mean something other than mass murder. So, if you’ll have me, I’ll be joining your team with Sara. Both the local team and the Justice League if there’s still a spot open.”

“I’m sorry that Chronos was you, Barry,” Oliver said genuinely. “I honestly believed you would be safe on the ship. The Sara I knew never mentioned anything like this happening, so it wasn’t even something I thought of as a possibility. I’m sorry you had to go through that, and of course you’re welcome to join both teams. The Justice League’s main roster is full, but I always planned to recruit as many heroes as possible to vary the team make-ups. Sara’s welcome to join as well if that’s something she’s interested in.”

“Oh, yeah, definitely,” Sara said. “I know what’s important now, Ollie, and I’m willing to fight for it. Whatever else fighting with the Legends has taught me, it’s that. Plus, without that, Barry and I wouldn’t be a thing.”

Oliver blinked. “So, when you said ‘we’, you weren’t just talking hero stuff,” Oliver murmured.

“Nope,” Sara said. “Why?”

“Oh, just reminding myself things that happened originally don’t have to happen now, and if I’m honest, I can see you and Barry as a couple,” Oliver said. “Besides, I can hardly talk about changing my relationships through time travel. Laurel’s at my side in all of the ways that matter, for now, and I’m at hers, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m glad the two of you have found some common ground, found something to hold onto. That’s what’s important in life, our relationships to those we love.”

“Aw, sentimental Ollie has to be my favorite,” Sara teased, and Laurel chuckled, smiling in pleasure at the sheer joy of having her sister back. Oliver noted the look on his girlfriend’s face. “Oh, and Ollie, you were right to want Barry to stay on the _Waverider_.”

“Sara…” Barry whined.

Sara continued on, unapologetic. “We had to make an emergency landing in 2046 and ended up going to future you for help in fixing the _Waverider_ ,” she said. “Rip decided to take Barry and I into the Queen Mansion with him so you could see we were safe. Apparently, as far as you two were concerned, we disappeared on the _Waverider_ and never came back.”

“Oh, that man,” Laurel said, flexing her right hand. “What I wouldn’t give for _two_ minutes alone with him…”

Sara raised her eyebrows at her sister’s new tendencies towards violence but continued, “Future you told Barry to get back on the ship. Next thing we know, Barry’s got a fucking ninja’s sword against his throat.” Oliver rubbed his temple in exasperation while Laurel giggled at her boyfriend’s incredulous expression and Barry’s resigned one. “Turns out it was some guy calling himself Prometheus. Apparently, he’s like your Joker. You even said Batman probably rubbed off on you a little more than you thought since you didn’t kill him when you had a chance.”

“I don’t see _why_ I wouldn’t kill him,” Oliver muttered. “Simon Morrison is a psychopath who is obsessed with punishing me for what happened to his father in either timeline, I guess.”

“That’s basically what you said,” Sara nodded. “Anyways, Dick knocked out Simon and you had the S.C.P.D. take him in. But that proved to me that Barry here is just a trouble magnet. Next thing we know, Chronos is attacking the ship again and then he and I are blown into the Temporal Zone.”

“Where did you end up?” Oliver asked, though he had an inkling.

“The 1950s, not a place for an out-and-proud bisexual like me,” Sara said. “I ended up going back to the League. At least there, I could use my skills and not have to pretend to be some dutiful housewife.”

“The League?” Laurel asked. “But Sara, you and Ollie have both told me what the League’s like for women…”

“It was the only thing that was familiar to me,” Sara said softly, “and I found a way to protect myself in the end. I became Ra’s’ Horseman.”

“And what about before then?” Laurel asked. Sara said nothing. “Oh, Sara…”

“I’m fine,” Sara said. “Barry and I… we helped each other get over what the League and the Council did to us. I’m good, Laurel. Better than I used to be.”

Oliver asked, “So, what’s Rip up to now? In the last timeline, he offered for the Legends to join him in preserving the timeline.”

“That’s not a thing this time,” Sara said. “But he did ask us to tell you he needs to meet you at the Quiver later, ask your opinion on what he and the remaining Time Masters should do now that the Council’s been destroyed.”

“Hmm,” Oliver mused thoughtfully. “Well, in that case, Barry and I can take your gear to the Quiver and wait for him.” Oliver smiled at his girlfriend, who beamed at him. “Give the two of you some time to catch up. You’ve got a lot to talk about.”

“Thank you, Ollie,” Laurel said, grabbing Sara’s hand and pulling her towards the couch. “After today, I could really use some family time. I love you. I just…”

“Need your family more right now,” Oliver finished. “I understand. There are times when the only ones who get through to me are Thea or Emiko. We’ll get out of your hair. Come on, Barry.” Barry nodded as the two set their empty wine glasses down on the counter and picked up Sara’s duffel bag and Barry’s trunk, exiting the loft.

Laurel and Sara sat down on the couch, setting their wine glasses on the coffee table. “So, you met us in 2046?” Laurel asked. “Were we happy?”

“You were more than happy,” Sara said. “You had everything you’ve ever wanted, Laurel. You and Ollie were married, you had a daughter, and from the looks of it you were still active, or at least were ready to defend your home from intruders since you came at us armed with a staff and a bow before you recognized us.” Sara grinned. “You also got to punch Rip in the nose for calling me unimportant.”

“Good,” Laurel said, “because no one calls my little sister unimportant.”

“Ah, yeah, about that,” Sara said. “Remember how I spent time with the League? Well, I was there for two years. I’m twenty-eight now, same as you.”

“Doesn’t matter, you’re still my little sister in my heart,” Laurel said. “That wouldn’t change even if you were twenty-nine and a year older than me all of the sudden.” Laurel smiled at her sister, who smiled back shyly. “So, what else can you tell me?”

“Well, you should know that I saw or read about a lot of the major stuff,” Sara said. “Gideon showed us the Battle of Amnesty Bay, Rip let me watch the Huntsman’s trial, and we all read Wonder Woman’s interview with Lois Lane. So, I know some of what you’ve been through, though not the specifics.” Sara brightened. “But right before we confronted the Council, we went to 2266 and met the Justice League of that era.”

“It’s still around?” Laurel asked, astounded.

“Yup,” Sara said, “and so is your legacy. We met two of you and Ollie’s descendants, Oliver Darius and his sister, Laurel Sara. Darius was the Green Arrow and Laurel Sara, who looked almost exactly like you but with Ollie’s eyes, was the Black Canary. She had your sonic scream.”

“Wow,” Laurel said softly. “Ollie talked about how he wanted to leave a legacy. I guess I’m happy to know we did leave a lasting one.” Laurel frowned. “But isn’t telling me this going to risk that future?”

“Nope, I even asked if I was allowed to tell you,” Sara said. “According to Laurel Sara, the only edict was that they couldn’t tell _me_ or any of us what happened in your life because that _could_ shift things and change them. But there’s nothing wrong with me telling you what I saw.” Sara’s expression fell slightly as she frowned. “There wasn’t much I wanted to know, but there was one big thing that I was told, they probably didn’t think it mattered. But it matters to me. They said no one wants to name their kid Dinah, that it’s considered bad luck because Mom did something bad.”

“Ah,” Laurel said quietly. She looked down at her hands, right thumb instantly tracing the scar on her left hand, a movement Sara knew was always associated with Laurel’s nervousness and fear. Sara reached out and grabbed Laurel’s hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze, telling her without words that she was here. Finally, Laurel spoke. “It started a while back, just after Ollie recruited Superman for the Justice League. Mom stopped by C.N.R.I. She was nervous, and considering what she had to say, I guess that makes sense. She knew that what she was there to tell me was bad, really bad.”

“What was it?” Sara asked.

“She told me about her coming home early and finding you packing the day the _Gambit_ left,” Laurel said softly. Sara’s free hand shot to her mouth. She had thought her mother would’ve told her family about that when it happened. She had thought they already knew! “I told her to get out. I couldn’t look at her. I called Ollie, asked him what I should do. He told me that whatever I decided, I needed to make the best decision for myself, not let family pressures or the fact that I’m known for my compassionate heart dictate what I did. I wrestled with this for days, Sara, it why’s I was so distant. I didn’t want to burden you with this. We had gotten to such a good place and I didn’t want to tell you, because I was afraid you would try to convince me to forgive her so our family could be whole.” Laurel looked down at her hand again. “After Ollie and I got back from Metropolis, I tracked Mom down at her hotel room and told her that I wanted to forgive her, but that I couldn’t, not without sacrificing my own self-worth.”

“Oh, Laurel…” Sara whispered.

“Yeah,” Laurel said softly. “The truth is, the past few months have been pretty bad for me, family-wise. The only good things in my life have been Ollie, Black Canary, and the Justice League. How sad and pathetic is that, that I can’t find joy in other parts of my life?”

“You mean… Dad?” Sara asked, fearing the worst.

“He was very angry when I came back from Amnesty Bay,” Laurel said softly, a tear trickling down her cheek. “He-He called me a freak, said I was just the pet female representation for the Justice League, practically accused me of sabotaging all chances of our family healing when it was _Dinah_ who did that by hiding the truth about knowing you went on the _Gambit_ from us, who basically told you it was okay to blow up my relationship just because you were her favorite!” Laurel took a deep, shuddering breath. “I’m not angry at _you_ , Sara. I’m angry at her. At her excuses. She didn’t even apologize. She just told me what she did and expected me to forgive her because she _finally_ came clean, only after we knew you were alive, and Ollie and I were back together. Then Mom came by the shop the day of the Battle of Gotham, and all she wanted was to know how to contact you. Then she got after me for not telling her I’d been disbarred and referred to what I do as ‘running around in a costume and screaming at people’.”

“Laurel, I’m so sorry,” Sara choked out. “I thought Mom told you and Dad. I thought you _knew_. If I had known she hadn’t told you…”

“I know,” Laurel said wearily. “But I’m tired, Sara. I’m so tired of having to be their perfect daughter. The one who gets straight A’s, who has a boring nine-to-five, who has a nice, normal, safe life and never does anything that they don’t agree with. I have tried all of my life to live up to their standards, to get every scrap of approval I could get from them, but all I ever really got was recriminations for not doing this, for not being that, for not doing what they think I should have done. I’m done pretending to be someone that I’m not, Sara. I want to be _me_ , and my truest self is Black Canary. If Mom and Dad can’t accept me for who I am, that’s on them. But I’m not going to be chasing after their approval anymore. I’m not their perfect daughter. I’m not their favorite daughter. I’m just their daughter, and if they can’t accept me, then they can’t accept me. I wouldn’t be the first woman who’s family has been unable to accept them for who they were.”

“Well, if they can’t accept you, then they can’t accept me, either,” Sara said tentatively.

“That’s the thing, Sara,” Laurel said. “I would bet when the news hits that you’re back, that you’re White Canary, Mom is going to be so proud of you, and when he gets out of rehab, Dad won’t hesitate to tell you he is, too. You can’t do anything wrong in their eyes. You never have.” Laurel wiped at her eyes. “Let’s talk about something else. Tell me everything about what you know about my life, and about my many-times great-grandchildren. I want to know everything.” Her green eyes were shining with such delight, hiding her pain, that Sara couldn’t bring herself to talk to her sister more about what they had just been discussing. But a discussion would be had; just not with Laurel. Her parents needed a serious fucking reality check, and she was sure she could sneak into wherever her father was being treated, or Ollie could bribe the people in charge to let her have a moment with her father. Whichever worked as far as she was concerned. **_*2*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver and Barry got out of Oliver’s Camaro, which he had pulled into the underground garage of the Quiver and moved around to the trunk. The two had been silent on the way over. “So, I’m guessing since you were Chronos, you got a download on how to maintain your gear,” Oliver said.

“Yup,” Barry said. “Which means I actually did learn on my sabbatical.” Oliver grinned at that and Barry grinned back as they fetched Barry’s trunk and Sara’s duffel bag from the trunk and headed into the Quiver proper, where Henry was already at the computers, researching for the night’s patrol. He looked up, surprised to see someone who wasn’t a part of the usual suspects come in with Oliver. “Hey,” Barry said cheerfully, waving. Henry waved back.

“Henry, this is Barry Allen, he’ll be joining both the local team and the Justice League,” Oliver said. “Barry, this is Henry Fyff, or Oversight. He maintains our communications and provides us with on-the-fly intel and hacking where necessary.”

“Nice to meet you,” Henry said.

“Likewise,” Barry said, “though it’ll take me a while to get used to hearing the name Henry and not seeing my Dad around.”

“Right, your father’s name is Henry,” Oliver mused.

“Oh, boss, you have a visitor,” Henry said, pointing to the round table set between the main operations platform and the ‘kitchen’ area. Rip Hunter was already seated at the table.

“Thanks, Henry,” Oliver said, setting Sara’s bag down in front of the line of mannequins and heading over to the table. “Captain Hunter. I’m glad everyone made it back safely. Or so I would assume since Barry hasn’t mentioned anything about casualties.”

“Thanks to the involvement of Superman and Supergirl from 2266 along with a couple of your descendants, we were more than ready to take on the Council’s forces,” Rip replied. “But now there is a problem, Mr. Queen. The central operations for the Time Masters were run out of the Vanishing Point, which has been destroyed. I was hoping to ask if you had any ideas on how to form my fellow Time Masters into a cohesive unit.”

“I can only tell you what Sara told me in the last timeline,” Oliver replied. “According to her, you eventually set up the Time Bureau, which was funded as a black budget project under the Department of Defense. And at that time, it was just you. I’m sure having a whole bunch of help will make such an organization efficient in much less time than it took in the old timeline.”

“Which was how long?” Rip asked.

“Five years, I think,” Oliver said with a shrug. “Sara was a little bitter at the time since you had relieved the Legends from duty. But apparently you did as I hoped and illustrated what time travel is really all about. Neither Barry nor Sara seem inclined to help you with keeping the timeline intact.”

“No, they don’t,” Rip replied. “They informed me that once the mission was over they were ‘done’ with time travel.”

“Yeah, I don’t know what my other self was thinking,” Barry said from nearby. “Time travel… it’s horrible. I don’t see how I could’ve ever seen it as a fix-all unless I ignored the consequences. Which,” he sighed, “from what Oliver told me before the mission was probably the case. I’m glad I went with you, Rip, but don’t ever ask me to help you again.”

“I understand completely, Barry,” Rip said. “And now that I’ve gotten Mr. Queen’s advice, I will take my leave. The Council had contacts in the government in every generation, so I have my heading. Good luck, both of you, with your work.” Rip got onto the elevator and the doors closed behind him.

“I am not gonna miss that guy popping by and bypassing our security,” Henry said.

“Well, now all that’s left to do is decide what to tell my Dad,” Barry said.

“Oh?” Oliver asked.

“Well, as far as he knows, I was on sabbatical, and now I’m in a relationship with Sara that I have no intention of hiding, so…” Barry shrugged.

“Ah,” Oliver said. “Well, something that’s sort of slipped out there is that I helped assemble a team for a special mission. It also slipped out that Sara was on that team. So, if you don’t plan on hiding your relationship, your dad is going to know you went on the mission.”

“Oh,” Barry said faintly. “That’s good… I guess… assuming he doesn’t try to kill you…” Oliver rolled his eyes.

**_*DC*_ **

After returning to the loft to fetch his duffel bag, Barry headed down to the apartment that he shared with his father and unlocked the door, letting himself inside. “Barry?” Henry Allen asked in stunned disbelief as his son entered. “Why didn’t you call and let me know you were coming back? I would have come to the airport to get you.”

“That’s the thing, Dad,” Barry said quietly, dropping his duffel bag down on the ground. “I never got on a plane. I was never on sabbatical.”

“What?” Henry asked, confused.

“You heard the rumors about Oliver assembling a team that Sara Lance joined?” Barry asked.

“Yeah,” Henry said slowly. Then his eyes widened. “No…”

“Yeah,” Barry said quietly. “He recruited me for the mission, too. We just got back tonight.”

“What the hell was he thinking?” Henry asked. “You’re not a superhero!”

“Maybe I wasn’t when I left,” Barry said. “But things happened. I’m different, Dad. And I’ll tell you all of it. I don’t want any lies to hang between us. I’m sorry I lied to you when I left. But Sara and I… we’re together, and there’s no way to hide that. So, I’m not hiding any of it. Not from you, anyways.”

“Alright,” Henry said, calming down. “Tell me everything. But if I hear something I don’t like, I’m breaking Oliver Queen’s nose.”

Barry sighed. Oliver had told him that if Henry was anything like Joe was in the last timeline, that he would be very disapproving of Oliver and probably want to hurt him for putting Barry in some kind of danger. Oliver’s seeming omniscience was becoming really annoying. **_*3*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* I think it would be very like Bruce to have a blown-up version of Gotham on fire from the Battle in the Batcave as a reminder of what the cost of his own hubris could be.
> 
> *2* And so now Sara knows what her parents have been up to with her sister the past few months and she’s not happy at all. Things are going to be very interesting when Sara gets going with Dinah and/or Quentin…
> 
> *3* I thought it would be amusing if Henry and Joe shared a similar disposition re: Oliver and his friendship with Barry, which I kind of hinted at in “Rise”.


	56. Breakfast Conversation

Oliver Queen woke up the morning after Barry and Sara returned to find the bed beside him empty. He wasn’t expecting Laurel to be here, she had gone home with Sara last night, but it was very odd not having her here with him. His hand reached over and touched the empty spot beside him before he pushed himself up into a sitting position on the edge of the bed. Oliver looked out at the sky. It was late April in Washington, near the ocean, so the sky looked a little stormy. Oliver stood and set out clothes for the day before heading to the bathroom. He quickly showered and dressed for the day, heading downstairs to find that Laurel and Sara had let themselves in (he had given Laurel a key not long after the trial of the Huntsman) and were talking quietly on the couch. “Morning, ladies,” he said quietly.

“Morning, Ollie,” the Lance sisters chorused just as quietly, grinning at each other. Oliver’s lips twitched at the fact that it hadn’t taken them very long to get back in sync, probably because they had spent the entire night talking. Laurel had tear tracks and wasn’t wearing any make-up just yet, but she looked much better; she had a glow about her that she hadn’t had in a while. Oliver hadn’t realized just how much her relationship with Sara had come to mean to his girlfriend until now, where he could see the difference having her sister back in her life and presumably approving of who she was and what she did was making in her.

“So, what’s for breakfast?” Sara chirped.

“Laurel’s favorite, my infamous blueberry pancakes,” Oliver said.

“Yum,” Laurel said with a grin. The Lance sisters followed Oliver over to the kitchen, leaning on the counter as he set about making preparations for the pancakes, mixing the batter and adding blueberries to the mix, chatting quietly about their adventures. Oliver picked up Laurel telling Sara how much she hated fighting things that wanted to eat her, and she hoped that she had filled that quota for the year. He hoped she had, too. The Huntsman, the Trench, the Vrangs… Laurel had had to deal with too many things that looked at her like she was a meal on two legs. Hopefully the remaining aliens were too scared of the Justice League and it’d just be Zod’s army that they would have to deal with. Which reminded him…

“Laurel, did you tell Sara what we’re facing?”

“You mean the army of Superman’s people who are led by a psychotic warlord type bent on world domination? She didn’t mention it,” Sara sassed. Oliver rolled his eyes. “But seriously, that’s just par for the course the way the past several months have been as far as I can tell. You come back in time, set about trying to change things for the better, end up on the run, get pardoned and put in charge of forming the Justice League, form the Legends while you’re at it and send us on the mission to stop the Council, then end up in two epic battles for the fate of cities, not to mention discover the damned Greek Pantheon was real and one of your new team is a fucking gorgeous demi-goddess.”

“I’m not introducing you,” Oliver said instantly.

“Already met her,” Sara said dismissively. “She was the leader of the Justice League in 2266. Barry and I got our staring done with the newspaper article, so we managed to control ourselves when we actually met her in real life. Of course, this Diana doesn’t know us, so we do need to get acquainted.” Sara gave a devilish smirk. “Who knows, maybe I can talk Barry into a one-off threesome. He’s very biddable, you know.”

“I think Barry would turn scarlet if he ended up in the same bed as both you and a demi-goddess,” Oliver replied, knowing Sara was just teasing him and deciding to go along with it. “You might break him.”

“I would not,” Sara objected, and Laurel giggled as Oliver ladled the pancake mix onto the griddle. “So, who’s getting served first?”

“Laurel,” Oliver said plainly.

“Thought so,” Sara said. “At least you’re making restaurant size pancakes and not those piddly little things some people make.”

“Laurel likes them this way,” Oliver said.

“Man, you are so whipped,” Sara said, snickering.

“I think it’s more accurate to say we know each other very well and want to do things that make the other happy, even simple things,” Laurel said diplomatically, grinning.

“So, you’re both whipped,” Sara replied smartly. “I said it back after the mob war. The two of you are nauseatingly sweet with one another.”

“That’s not necessarily a bad thing,” Oliver said as he flipped the pancakes. “Besides, I’d guess you and Barry are just as sweet with each other, in your own way.”

“Not the way you two are,” Sara said defiantly. “The two of you could give people toothaches.”

“We’re not that bad,” both Laurel and Oliver said, knowing it wasn’t true. Sara’s smirk at both of them confirmed that she didn’t find either of them believable.

Oliver served up Laurel’s pancakes, who buttered them up and squeezed her preferred level of syrup over them before digging in. “As wonderful as always, Ollie,” Laurel said. “You know, if the whole superhero thing doesn’t work out, you could always open a restaurant.”

“I’ll keep it in mind,” Oliver said dryly. Sara snickered again. “So, Sara, any observations you made in 2046 that I should know about?”

“A few,” Sara said, sobering up. “For one, you and Laurel both had mechanical limbs. You were missing an arm, and Laurel’s left hand had been cut off.” Laurel started, looking at her left hand, which was gripping the glass of orange juice she had poured while Oliver was working on mixing up the batter. “You two told me it was Grant Wilson, and that Flashpoint or something caused Grant’s date of conception to move up in the original timeline. In the current one, he’s like three. Apparently, he inherits his father’s insanity.”

“Yeah, about that,” Oliver said. “The Mirakuru is what made Slade into the monster, Sara. I know this, because when I fought Prometheus in the last timeline, Slade helped me save most of the people that Prometheus and Talia had taken prisoner. I’ve asked Arthur to search for the cure from the _Amazo_ when he has the time, and he’s promised to undertake the search personally. Barring that, Clark, Diana, Arthur, and Hal have all promised to help restrain Slade so that we can extract a blood sample and separate the Mirakuru from it, reverse-engineer a cure from that. It’ll probably take a couple of years for the Mirakuru to be completely cleansed, though, so Amanda Waller is prepping a cell that can hold Slade.”

“Good,” Sara said. “For what it’s worth, I hope you’re right, Ollie, and you get Slade back. I know he was your friend and that it was important to you. I remember how much you wanted to believe that you could reach him. But if he does escape and come after the people that I care about, all bets are off. I won’t risk my family for Slade Wilson.”

“Fair enough,” Oliver said quietly. “As it is, we might not even see him for a long time. According to the latest intel from Waller, Deathstroke is seemingly taking orders from H.I.V.E. now. I guess Slade knew he didn’t stand a chance against the Justice League on his own.”

“Anything that upsets that psycho’s plans is fine in my book,” Sara said as Oliver set a plate of pancakes in front of her before turning back to fix his own batch. Sara fixed up her pancakes, which had a dash of whipped cream on the side, earning a chuckle from her sister, and dug in. “Wow, these really _are_ good,” Sara said.

“So, any other observations?” Oliver asked.

“Yeah, according to the 2046 you and Laurel, Prometheus is also going to be with H.I.V.E., and he’s gonna be a serious threat,” Sara said. “From what you said, after H.I.V.E. fell, Prometheus simply lost the plot and you just saw him as this sad pathetic lump that you couldn’t kill. I’m gonna advocate you kill him when he does show up, because according to future Laurel, he killed a lot of people. Slade probably did, too, but I’m guessing you guys didn’t want to get into the Slade thing with me. And if you can’t kill him, I will.”

“Fair enough,” Oliver said. “Anything else?”

“Nah, that’s pretty much it,” Sara said. “You and Laurel were pretty tight-lipped, and you made it a family edict that was ingrained in your descendants from birth to not tell me anything if they met me during their lifetimes.”

“I would apologize, but I know it’s probably for the best,” Oliver said. “What you were told sounds pretty vague, so I can’t really use it except to be prepared for H.I.V.E. to have both Deathstroke and Prometheus at their beck and call. At least this time, I can assume Simon is angry because his father was killed in prison for doing what he did. I know I did everything I could to not be someone who could be considered a serial killer.”

“Serial killer?” Sara echoed.

“In the original timeline, I killed more than a few of the people on the List, like Leo Mueller and Justin Claybourne,” Oliver said. “People who’s crimes I found too heinous to just let pass. The team I recruited after Darhk killed Laurel, which Felicity pressured me into, didn’t take the fact that Green Arrow had once been the Hood well.”

“How did they even figure it out?” Laurel asked cautiously.

“Prometheus was killing people whose names were anagrams of people on the List,” Oliver replied.

Laurel sipped at her orange juice for a moment then said in a mild tone, “It must’ve taken quite the effort for Prometheus to hunt down criminals whose names were anagrams for people from the List.”

“He didn’t kill criminals,” Oliver replied as he dished up his own pancakes and turned off the stove, coming to the counter and putting his own levels of butter, syrup, and a dash of whipped cream on his pancakes. “He killed random people. The only one who was a criminal was a man named Tobias Church.” Sara and Laurel exchanged looks. “What?” Oliver asked warily.

“So, you’re telling us that these recruits of yours took a man killing random people whose names ended up being anagrams for people on the List and spun it into this idea that you were a serial killer because you were a little more lethal in the original timeline?” Laurel asked. Oliver nodded slowly, taking a bite of his pancakes. “Ollie, while I suppose it might be true that you could have been classed as a mission-based serial killer, I doubt that you had the level of sadism this Prometheus had, and at the end of the day, I’m betting every last person you killed was guilty of heinous crimes. You even said it yourself that those were the only ones you killed. I’m not saying what you did was right; I can’t judge the actions you took in another timeline. But I know people like Leo Mueller and Justin Claybourne had to be stopped. Yes, you found a different way this time around. But you have the power of hindsight in this timeline. You did what you thought was best. Prometheus just killed innocent people for the sake of sending a message and apparently screwing with your head and the heads of your team. From the sounds of it, he succeeded.”

Oliver ate silently for a moment, then he finally said, “I _really_ wish that you had been around when they were calling me a serial killer. Not even John and Felicity defended me, and they’d been part of my List takedowns.” **_*1*_**

“I think the less said about John Diggle and Felicity Smoak, the better,” Laurel said lightly. “You have me, now. You have Sara, Barry, and Rene. You have Henry. You’re going to have Roy and Thea. You have people to lean on, Ollie, people who accept that sometimes you come across a criminal whose crimes are too heinous for you and accept that you do what you feel is necessary.”

“Funny thing is that Rene was one of the recruits, but looking back on it, he wasn’t _against_ me being the Hood,” Oliver said. “He was surprised, but he didn’t condemn me as far as I know. Not like the others did.”

“Then he’s smarter than he sometimes acts,” Laurel quipped. “Oh, and Ollie? The Hood is a terrible codename.”

“Yeah, I called myself the Arrow for the next two years before Ra’s exposed me and Roy had to take the fall for what I had supposedly done,” Oliver said. “I’m just glad that Ra’s probably won’t be able to do the same kinds of things if he decides he wants me as his Heir. Though from my understanding, Batman will be in the running with me, especially now that we’ve both been in the news.”

“The Arrow’s not too bad, I suppose,” Laurel said. “How did Green Arrow come about?”

“I was being a bit of a smart-ass,” Oliver said, and Sara choked on a bit of pancake as she laughed. That sounded like Ollie, alright. “Back in my first year, there was a Christmas dinner party where my activities ended up a topic of conversation. Kind of like the dinner party Mom threw, Laurel.” The Lance sisters both nodded, Laurel having told Sara about the dinner party while Oliver had been on the run following Tommy exposing him. “Malcolm asked me what I thought about the vigilante. I said I thought he needed a better codename than the Hood or the Hood guy. That got some laughs. Then Malcolm suggested Green Arrow. I said it was lame.”

“And then turned right around and used it a few years later to be a smart-ass,” Laurel concluded. Oliver nodded. “Oh, Ollie…”

“Oh, speaking of Merlyns, I did forget one thing,” Sara said. “Not from 2046. From 2266. Your descendants implied Tommy became an issue. They didn’t say anything, but the attitude they had when I mentioned Tommy in passing was pretty telling.”

“I had hoped that wouldn’t be the case,” Oliver murmured. “We’ll have to be ready, then. Who knows? Maybe we can find some way to reach him. I have to believe that somewhere inside of him is the good man that he became in the last timeline. He just needs to be shown the way.”

“Maybe,” Sara said with a shrug. “I guess the best thing we can say is that as long as he’s with the League, there’s no chance he’ll join Slade and Simon in the service of H.I.V.E. If he did, Ra’s would kill him.”

“Yes, he would,” Oliver agreed. Ra’s had been willing to destroy an entire city just to kill Darhk. He wouldn’t take kindly to one of his agents working with the man. The three ate the rest of their breakfast in silence.

“Oh, Ollie, I was wondering if you could arrange for me to see Dad,” Sara said. “I’d rather not have to slip into wherever he’s being treated illegally.”

“Your father won’t be ready for visitors for months according to the doctors the last time I talked to them,” Oliver said. “He’s still having trouble accepting the new world paradigm, and until he can, he probably won’t be able to handle visitors who shift his world-view any further.” Oliver eyed his friend cautiously. “Why?”

“He and I need to have a discussion about how he treated Laurel,” Sara said tightly. “As it is, I’m going to be going to Central City in the next couple of days and having a word with my Mom.”

“Sara, you don’t have to do that,” Laurel protested.

“Yes, I do,” Sara said stubbornly. “You have as much right to spread your wings and be who you really are as I do, Laurel, and you deserve to have had the support that I would’ve had if what you think is true. I’m gonna tell Mom what I’ve been up to, and if she reacts the way that you think, I’m going to tell her she’s a fucking hypocrite to support me while condemning you.”

“It’s not that big of a deal,” Laurel said feebly.

“Yes, it is,” Sara said firmly. Oliver said nothing, but both sisters could tell from the way he was smiling that he fully-supported Sara giving the Lance parents an earful. “So, Ollie, think you can arrange it?”

“As much as I would love for you to give Quentin an earful right now, I’m not sure you’ll do any better than Laurel and I did in confronting him while he’s still unable to accept the new world paradigm,” Oliver replied. “But I promise you that as soon as the doctors tell me he can have visitors that I’ll let you know. Maybe at that point he’ll accept what you have to say in a way he couldn’t accept what either Laurel or I said.”

“Or I’ll just sneak in and have a chat with him,” Sara said evenly.

“Sara, please don’t,” Laurel said, taking her sister’s hand. “I really love that you want to stand up for me, but if Dad is going to accept me for who I am, I want it to come about naturally, not be forced. Please, wait for him to be cleared for visitors.”

Sara stared at her sister for a moment, then finally sighed and nodded. “Fine,” she said. “But I’m gonna head to Central City and talk to Mom about all of this. It’s not right that you haven’t been given the support I would have in choosing to be Black Canary. You seem happier than you ever did before I left, and I can’t help but think part of that is because you got the chance to be Black Canary and just be _yourself_ for once. I can’t wait to see you in action.” Oliver had patrolled alone last night, the Lance sisters having the night in. “I’m sure you’re suitably bad-ass.”

“Oh, she’s definitely a bad-ass,” Oliver said with a smile, causing Laurel to blush. “And you should see her outfit, Sara. Definitely not what I expected from Laurel at all.”

“Which is what I was going for,” Laurel pointed out smugly, grinning through her blush. “It certainly left you speechless.”

“Really?” Sara asked with a grin.

“His reaction was ‘Guh’,” Laurel said. “He definitely approves of my outfit, though.”

“Yes, I do,” Oliver said. “Oh, speaking of, Sara, your outfit seems to be the same as the outfit you made yourself later in your career as White Canary.”

“I didn’t create my original outfit?” Sara asked.

“No, Laurel had Cisco Ramon make the original outfit,” Oliver said. “I have to say the one you made is very you. And I noticed it’s made of liquid armor, same as mine and Laurel’s.”

“I made sure it was made of something that could be explained in the current time,” Sara said with a shrug. “I don’t see how we’re going to explain Barry’s.”

“I’ve found that as long as the person is protecting people, explanations aren’t really asked for,” Oliver said. “But if worst comes to worst, I come clean about the mission I sent you on. I have to give the president a call, anyways, tell him the Justice League is getting new members and what they’ve been up to. I figure it’ll help Rip in his pitch for making the Time Bureau to the government.”

“Yeah, probably,” Sara said. “Well, I guess today will be about reacclimating to the world.” She eyed her sister. “Care for some company at the flower shop?”

“Always,” Laurel said with a grin. “Thanks for breakfast, Ollie. I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Oliver said, circling the counter and kissing her. “Now, it’ll take a while for you to get to the flower shop, so I’ll let the two of you go. Have a good day.”

“It’s not like we’re going to be strangers, considering how often you end up working at the Quiver during the day,” Laurel pointed out.

“Huh?” Sara asked. “Doesn’t he have Queen Consolidated to deal with?”

“No, he made Emiko C.E.O. after the Battle of Gotham,” Laurel said. Sara’s mouth formed an ‘oh’. “So he’s kind of going stir crazy.”

“Actually, I do have something I’m doing today for Queen Consolidated,” Oliver reminded her.

“Oh, that’s right,” Laurel said, brightening. “The steel factory’s opening again. You must be so happy that one of your promises is coming true.” Laurel turned to Sara. “You wouldn’t mind watching the store with Thea this afternoon, right? I was there when he made the promise to re-open the steel factory. I want to be there when he fulfills it.”

“I think we can both leave the shop in Thea’s hands for, what, a couple of hours?” Sara remarked. “I’ll even drag Barry out. Oh, and I guess you’ll be getting him back in at Applied Sciences?” This was shot in Oliver’s direction.

“Yup,” Oliver said. “I think he’d actually be a good fit for Q-Core at this point with the knowledge he gained from the Council as Chronos.” Oliver glanced at the clock. “Anyways, the two of you really better get heading back to your apartment. You still need to get ready for the day in full.”

“True,” Laurel said. She kissed Oliver goodbye and headed out the door, Sara following behind her. Oliver watched them go, smiling softly. It was good seeing Laurel happy in a way that only her family made her again. Oliver knew how hard the past few months had been on his girlfriend, not having her sister nearby and being forced to face ugly truths about her parents that she hadn’t wanted to acknowledge because it meant admitting that there were more problems in her family than those brought on by the events surrounding the _Queen’s Gambit_. But she had, and she had suffered for it. Oliver had held Laurel a few times as she dealt with the residual feelings surrounding Dinah and Quentin’s treatment of her.

Oliver slowly washed the dishes and set them to dry on the rack. As he did so, his eyes fell on the ring on his finger. A silver band, with a polished green stone that some might mistake for an emerald without a closer look. This was his insurance policy; he knew that as the leader of the Justice League that he would be a prime target for the Kryptonian army and their commander, and he had seen a few faces more than once over the past few weeks that he had his suspicions about. But he couldn’t be sure the people he had seen were Kryptonians or if they were intelligence agents for other countries who were _concerned_ with the rise of the Justice League as a force to be reckoned with. If they were Kryptonians, they were being careful not to attract his attention; he just took note of repeated faces around him as a matter of principle. He had learned the lesson that you never could tell if someone was trustworthy during that first year on the island. Between Yao Fei suddenly turning on him to the man Fyers and his men had tried to trick him into trusting by having him pretend to be someone like Oliver, a castaway who had run afoul of Fyers and his men, not to mention his and Slade’s introduction, there had been lessons aplenty in learning how to discern if someone was trustworthy or not during that first year, and those lessons had served him well for the most part since he had learned them.

Oliver hated that he had to wear Kryptonite to protect himself, but he knew that it was going to be the case until the Kryptonian army was defeated and either killed or sent back to the Phantom Zone where they belonged. That day was coming, he was sure. It would explain why the Kryptonians, if that was who they were, were watching him. They wanted to gauge the leader of their foremost enemy, probably considering him and the other members of the Justice League to be more significant threats than Superman, whose measured responses were likely what they saw as a weakness. He thought that Zod and his army were going to regret underestimating Clark, because Zod had threatened Clark’s little family when he came to see him. If there was one thing Oliver knew, it was that you didn’t threaten a man’s family without there being fallout from that, and Zod was going to regret doing that to Clark. Oliver smiled grimly. He almost felt sorry for Zod.

Almost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* Seriously, that whole scenario with Prometheus, the List, and Rory saying Prometheus’ message was that Oliver was the serial killer pisses me off. Now, technically, Oliver would probably count as a mission-based serial killer, but I don’t think the Arrow writers make that sort of distinction. They’re not that smart. No, based on 5x17, they were definitely going for the ‘gets off on killing people’ serial killer, which is very different from ‘mission-based’ serial killer, which as I said is what S1 Oliver would’ve counted as, if anything.


	57. The First Move

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Okay, here we go with the rest of the episode, finally. I ended up writing up the rest of it since there were things I wanted to get right before I started posting, so for the next few days, at least,there’ll be consistent updates. Enjoy.

Oliver Queen had gotten ready for the day and made his brief report to the President about the Legends (whose mission he had informed the President of during one of their meetings in Washington D.C. during the diplomatic trips between D.C. and Atlantis), including the fact that the Department of Defense were likely to get a request for a meeting from Rip Hunter and that what Rip was asking for was a vital service due to the threats posed by time criminals. Now, he was standing in front of the Allens’ apartment door, and he reached forward and knocked. He heard footsteps, and a moment later the door opened, and Henry Allen was standing on the other side of the door.

The look Henry gave Oliver was decidedly neutral, which Oliver supposed was the best he could hope for, considering Henry had just found out that Oliver had recruited his son for a dangerous mission and that the change in his son’s demeanor was because of his experiences on that mission. “Mr. Queen,” Henry said cautiously, even as other footsteps could be heard in the apartment. “Not here to recruit Barry for another crazy mission, are you?”

“No,” Oliver said as Barry arrived at the door, mouthing a ‘sorry’ to Oliver from behind Henry. “I thought that Barry would like to get his employment secured, and I can smooth things over with my sister so that Barry can start work at Queen Consolidated again. I figure that he would fit in well with Q-Core now.”

“Yeah, I’d like to get back to work as soon as I can,” Barry said. “Dad, I’ll see you later?”

“Sure, Barry,” Henry said, and Barry ducked around him, joining Oliver as they headed towards the elevators.

“Sorry about that,” Barry apologized as he and Oliver walked.

“Don’t worry, I’m used to disapproving fathers,” Oliver replied. “Quentin really didn’t like my relationship with Laurel, and he certainly doesn’t approve of my bringing Sara and Laurel both into this world of heroism. And in the last timeline, Joe and I had a… contentious relationship. He didn’t approve of my methods.”

“That hasn’t changed,” Barry said dryly. “We had a fight at Thanksgiving over me supporting you.”

“Sounds about right,” Oliver said with a nod. “You were always fighting with him when it came to our friendship.” Barry grinned at that. “So, did you sleep well first night back home?”

“Yeah,” Barry said. “It was nice sleeping in my own bed again after months in a bunk on the _Waverider_.” Barry shot Oliver a wry glance. “And you? How did you sleep?”

“When I _did_ sleep, I had some very odd dreams,” Oliver replied. “About my father.” His expression was troubled as he said this.

“How so?” Barry asked, then grimaced. “Sorry. You don’t have to answer that.”

“He just kept telling me that I ‘know what has to happen’, and that I can’t ‘stop what’s coming’,” Oliver replied. “There was also this odd lightning storm all around. It was… odd.” It was, because it reminded Oliver of tales the future Barry had told him of his encounters with the energy field that gave him his powers, the Speed Force. Oliver didn’t see why he would have dreams about it. He wasn’t a speedster anymore; that had just been a twist on reality by Deegan. So why would he have dreams about the thing that gave speedsters their power when he was no longer one?

The two men reached the elevator and summoned it with the press of a button. When the door opened, the two stepped inside… and found themselves standing someplace else. What wasn’t being lit up by flashes of lightning was pitch-black. “This is just like from my dream,” Oliver whispered. “The _Speed Force_.”

“What?” Barry asked, his head twisting around to look at Oliver. “What’s the Speed Force?”

“It’s what gives speedsters like your future self their powers,” Oliver replied. “But I don’t understand…” He trailed off as a pair of figures coalesced into being in front of them. “Dad?”

“Mom?” Barry asked weakly.

“What the hell is this?” Oliver scowled.

“We are manifestations of the Speed Force,” Robert said.

“We have been watching you both,” Nora continued.

“And we are pleased,” they both intoned.

“You, Oliver Queen,” Robert said, “have changed time, but you have done so with the best of intentions and with the greater good of all in mind instead of your own selfish desires.”

“And you, Barry Allen, have learned the lessons of time travel well,” Nora said. “We have watched your progress, and we have decided that you have learned enough about being a hero that it is time for you to have what was always destined to be yours.” Nora smiled. “I am so proud of you, my beautiful boy. You have always been my favorite.”

“What is this?” Barry finally asked. “What are you talking about?”

“They’re saying it’s time for you to be a speedster,” Oliver said. “But that’s not possible. It was the Accelerator that turned Barry into a speedster, and that won’t activate until 2020. The Monitor told me that everything would happen as it did before Thawne changed time, that this wouldn’t happen until 2020.”

“Mar-Novu is a cosmic force, as we are, but he does not dictate when or where a speedster is born,” Robert said. “And nor do you, Oliver. You are here as a courtesy because you have made yourself Barry’s mentor. The Accelerator did not change Barry. It merely opened the door for us to make him a speedster. In some timelines, Barry became a speedster without the accelerator, sometimes through sheer acts of nature. We are taking direct action because this is Barry’s destiny. The Age of Heroes has begun, and The Flash must take his place in their ranks. Not Chronos.”

Oliver swallowed. “I see,” he said quietly. “And the Crisis? Will that move forward?”

“It will not move forward with Barry gaining his speed,” Nora said. “The Crisis was moved forward by the machinations of Eobard Thawne, machinations that will not come to pass due to your endeavors, Oliver.”

“I understand,” Oliver said. “And I know I can’t stop you. I just needed to know.”

“That is why you were brought here as a courtesy,” Nora replied, before moving to stand in front of Barry, who was looking at her, teary-eyed. “You will shine like a beacon of hope for the world, Barry, as Superman does, and your loving heart will never lead you astray. Remember that when darkness descends.” Nora pressed a hand to Barry’s chest, and he stiffened as power visibly moved from Nora into him. “We are giving you the knowledge you need to be effective,” Nora said. “You have earned this knowledge through the trials that you have endured as Chronos. Now, shed the dark shadow of Chronos and step into the light as that which you were born to be: The Flash.” A glow spread outward from where her hand was pressed to Barry’s chest, and Oliver had to turn away due to the brightness. When the glow faded, Barry was standing there in the same uniform he had worn during his second year as The Flash, cowl down. “Good luck, my beautiful boy.” A blinding light filled both of their senses, and when they opened their eyes again, they were in the Quiver. **_*1*_**

“How did we get here?” Barry asked. “We were just…”

“Don’t question cosmic forces and their powers,” Oliver said. “Are your regular clothes still on under that?”

“Um, yeah, I think so,” Barry said and then moved at superspeed, a moment later standing in front of Oliver in the clothes that he had worn earlier, his Flash uniform tucked under one arm. “So… yeah, that happened.”

“Yes, it did,” Oliver said quietly. “And it changes things again.”

“How?” Barry asked.

“Let’s take a seat,” Oliver said, and the two sat at the round table, Barry setting his suit in front of him. “You’re The Flash now, Barry, and that means you need to make a choice. I’m Green Arrow because I love Starling City, and I want to see it come out of the age of darkness that Malcolm Merlyn and Tempest created for it with their machinations. This is not going to be an easy fight. It’s going to take years to truly get rid of all of the corruption that has been sown, to truly cut down on the crime. Even before Merlyn and his cabal, the city was bad. But I am dedicated to Starling because this is my home; this is where I want to settle down with Laurel, where I want to raise my children with her. I hurt when Starling hurts. The same can be said of Laurel and Rene.

“I was fine with you joining my team as Chronos, but The Flash is a symbol on his own, and that symbol has never been associated with a crime-ridden city like Starling City. It takes a certain kind of hero to patrol these streets, and while you may have become jaded by your experience as Chronos, I can see that you’re still the same man that I remember from the future. Tell me, Barry, when you look into the future, where do you see yourself? Still working Applied Sciences at Queen Consolidated, living in Starling City? Or do you see yourself somewhere else?”

Barry was silent as he contemplated Oliver’s words, thinking back to the moment that the Speed Force’s manifestation of his mother had touched him. He had not only felt the power flooding through him, he had seen something, a vision perhaps. He had seen how to use his powers, felt the knowledge become ingrained in his mind, and had also seen a vision of what life could be, a life with Sara at his side. And that vision hadn’t shown him in Starling City but patrolling familiar streets with familiar people in his life and helping to bring criminals to justice as both The Flash and as a forensic scientist. “The Speed Force showed me things when it touched me,” he said. “It showed me a possible future, filled with love, with Sara at my side. I was in Central City.”

“What do you feel when you think of Central City? What thoughts fill your mind?” Oliver asked.

“I feel… a sense of home,” Barry said. “It’s where I was raised, where my mother was buried. My dad already has a plot beside hers. They bought their plots together, years ago. And when I die, I want to be buried next to them.”

“Starling City was someplace you needed to be to learn the lessons that would make you into the man who becomes The Flash,” Oliver said quietly, “but Central City has always been your destiny. Starling has me and my team. Gotham has Batman and Robin. Metropolis has Superman. Amnesty Bay has Aquaman. Coast City has Green Lantern. New York City has Wonder Woman. And Central City needs The Flash to be a beacon of hope to its citizens and to the rest of the world.”

“What do I do about Sara?” Barry asked. “I saw a future for us, Oliver, but I’m pretty sure that she’s going to stay in Starling.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Oliver said. “The Sara that I knew visited Starling, but she actually lived in D.C. with her girlfriend in the last timeline when she wasn’t traveling through time. All that Sara is looking for, Barry, is a place to belong, and that could just as easily be Central City. Talk to her; tell her how you feel about her, and that you are going back to Central City. She might just surprise you.”

“Okay,” Barry said. “So, uh, what now?”

“Now, we figure out how to get back to the building,” Oliver said dryly. “I suppose you could run us back at super-speed. But I suggest you leave the uniform here… Flash.”

“Whatever you say, Green Arrow,” Barry said, setting the Flash uniform on top of the trunk containing his Chronos gear. A moment later, he and Oliver vanished, a trail of goldenrod lightning trailing behind them as they went back to their apartment building.

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver sighed as he leaned back against the elevator wall, loosening his tie. The steel factory re-opening ceremony had gone off without a hitch, and he had promised that so long as he was the majority shareholder of Queen Consolidated, the factory would never close as it had in the past. Oliver knew Emiko was concerned with the profit margin, and that was why he had made her C.E.O., but he would fight for those people and their jobs. Queen Consolidated would _invest_ in the local community for as long as he was alive, and he wasn’t going to back down on that.

Luckily, Emiko was just as dedicated as he was to helping the people of the Glades. Part of that, yes, was to improve the image of Queen Consolidated, but it was also because she had lived in the Glades. She knew the kind of desperation that was fostered there. She had ideas for a couple of more facilities in the Glades to give more people jobs and further tie Queen Consolidated to the community, something that Oliver wholeheartedly approved of. Oliver had been heartened by the fact that Barry, Laurel, and Sara had all been there when the factory was re-opened since they had been there the day that he had made the promise to re-open it. They hadn’t come to speak to him afterward, since he had been doing a meet-and-greet with the steel factory workers, but their being there was enough for him.

The elevator door opened onto Oliver’s floor and he exited, heading for his apartment door. He would be alone for a few hours yet; Laurel and Thea would be at the flower shop until about five p.m. and then it’d take them another half-hour to get back home. His mind was swirling around what he would be making for dinner, which he would start once he got a text from Laurel that they had closed up shop, as well as the evening’s patrol of the city. Tonight, he would be focusing on downtown while Laurel and Rene patrolled the Glades. Crime didn’t care about city district boundaries these days, and it showed in that even downtown suffered from some truly horrible crimes. There had been a rather unusual death this week that Oliver wanted to look into when he got the chance; a young woman from Berlanti Preparatory had been found drained of all of her blood, her body left in Mericle Plaza. According to the police report on the matter, it appeared as though she had been drained of blood with hospital equipment, and Oliver was planning on having Henry look into Glades Memorial, make sure they weren’t missing anything. **_*2*_**

Oliver opened his apartment door, pulling his tie off as he did so, feeling content. _Drip_. He frowned as something fell onto his shoulder. He pulled his suit jacket out to check it. There was a black, tar-like substance on the shoulder pad of his suit. Oliver looked up; he caught a glimpse of a dark green, nearly black _plant_ before it fell on him, and then he knew only darkness.

**_*DC*_ **

“So, what do you think Oliver’s going to have for us tonight?” Thea Queen asked Laurel Lance as they waited for the elevator to reach the loft’s floor. Sara Lance and Barry Allen were also in the elevator, Sara having invited Barry to join them for dinner as an impromptu date. “I’m kinda hoping for lasagna or something, myself.”

“Lasagna would be good,” Laurel agreed. “Though what kind? Meat, Five Cheese, or Veggie?”

“Considering how health-conscious you and he are these days, it’d probably be the last one,” Thea said. “But that’s okay. His Veggie Lasagna is great.” She scoffed. “Oh, who am I kidding? _All_ of Oliver’s dishes are great. He can make _Brussel sprouts_ seem great.”

“Don’t let him hear you say that,” Sara said teasingly. “We need to keep him humble. Laurel praises him enough all on her own for four people.”

“I do not,” Laurel objected.

“You told him this morning if the superhero thing doesn’t work out that he can always open a restaurant,” Sara said plainly. “All _I_ did was say his cooking was good. _You_ practically named him the next Gordon Ramsey.” Sara smiled at her sister. “Like I said during the mob war and this morning, you two are sickeningly sweet with one another.”

Laurel sighed. “We really are, aren’t we?” she asked.

“Yes, you are,” Thea groused. “No offense, but as soon as the school year is over, I’m moving out. The cuteness level is sickening.”

Barry chuckled. “Hard to imagine Oliver being ‘cute’,” he said.

“You’ve never seen his sappy face when he gets around Laurel,” Thea snarked at the newly-minted speedster, who had told the Lance sisters and Thea about his and Oliver’s experience this morning.

“No, I guess I haven’t,” Barry allowed as the elevator dinged and the doors opened. “But I’m sure you’re exaggerating. It’s kinda hard to picture the guy who took down Malcolm Merlyn and helped form the Legends being sappy.”

“Trust me, Barry, she’s telling the truth,” Sara said seriously as they opened the door to the loft.

“Ollie, we’re here, and very hungry,” Laurel said with a smile as she swung the door open. She stopped dead in her tracks, though, causing Thea, Barry, and Sara to halt their progress, too. Her green eyes were wide as they took in the motionless form of Oliver on the floor of the loft, some kind of plant wrapped around him with some kind of extension covering Oliver’s jaw and mouth. “Ollie!” Laurel dashed the short distance and collapsed to her knees beside her boyfriend, one hand going to his shoulder and shaking him. “Ollie, wake up! Come on, open your eyes!” **_*3*_**

“Oh, God,” Sara whispered as she stared at the thing that had attached itself to Oliver.

Barry crouched beside Laurel and began pulling her away. “We shouldn’t touch this, we have no idea what dislodging it could do to Oliver,” he said. “This doesn’t look like any Earth plant. It might even be sentient, somehow.”

“What’s it doing to my brother?” Thea asked, sounding scared.

“I don’t know,” Barry said. He forced Laurel to look at him. “We need to get an alien expert here, find out what this is. Do you know how to contact Superman?”

“Y-Yes,” Laurel stammered. She began searching Oliver’s pockets and came up with two cell phones. She set aside the one she recognized as his normal everyday phone and activated the second one, the government-encrypted phone that Oliver used to contact the President and the other members of the Justice League for League business. She opened up the contacts and found Clark’s name. She selected it, hit the green phone icon, and held it up to her ear.

“Hello, Oliver,” Clark said as he picked up. “What can I do for you this evening?”

“Superman, it’s Laurel,” Laurel said, mindful of the fact that the other three didn’t know Clark’s identity. “Sara, Barry, Thea, and I just got to the loft. Oliver’s unconscious with some kind of plant attached to him. I-I think it’s alien.”

“Don’t touch it,” Clark said. “I’m on my way. You need to call the D.E.O. and get them on this, too. After you do that, call Diana and tell her the emergency protocol is being activated. With Oliver incapacitated, she’s the acting leader of the Justice League, as per the agreement from the meeting after the Battle of Gotham.” That had been one of the many nitty-gritty details that the Justice League Council had hashed out that day before Oliver’s tell-all with them. “I shouldn’t be more than five minutes. In the meantime, make sure nothing else is out of place. If this _is_ an alien attack, then it must be Zod. He could have people there, waiting to strike.”

“I didn’t even think of that,” Laurel said, paling. She turned to look at her sister. “Superman thinks this could be Zod, and if that’s true, then someone else could be here.”

“We’re on it,” Sara said grimly. “Come on, Barry, we’re checking this place out.”

“Alright, we’re doing that,” Laurel said. “I’ll call the D.E.O. and then Diana. Thank you for moving so quickly.”

“Oliver’s my friend,” Clark said simply. “I’ll see you soon, Laurel.” He hung up.

Laurel took only a moment before she selected Alex Danvers’ contact icon and once more held the phone up to her ear. “What is it, Mr. Queen?” Alex asked on the other end.

“Agent Danvers, this is Laurel Lance. Oliver is incapacitated by what we think is some kind of alien plant. I’ve called Superman and he suspects this could be Zod’s doing. We’re in Oliver’s loft in Starling City.”

“I’ll have a team there in ten minutes,” Alex said. She hung up, presumably to scramble the team, and Laurel finally selected the contact for Diana.

“Oliver?” Diana asked.

“It’s Laurel,” the heroine replied. “Oliver’s incapacitated by what we think is an alien plant. Superman said to tell you that the emergency protocol is being activated. You’re acting leader of the Justice League, Diana.”

“Arthur is currently visiting me, he and I can be in Starling soon,” Diana said. “If this is an alien plant, it has to be Zod, and he will strike while he thinks we are weak. He may even be trying to strike at us separately. I will call Hal. Keep me updated.”

“I will,” Laurel promised, and Diana hung up. Laurel’s shoulders sagged as she looked at Oliver, who was lying motionless and pale with the black, slimy-looking plant curled around him. What was this thing? What was it doing to Oliver? Could they remove it? Or had Zod come up with something that they couldn’t counter to remove Oliver ahead of whatever attack he was planning? Despair turned to rage in Laurel’s mind at the thought of Zod. She was sure that Clark and Diana were right, that this was Zod’s doing. Oliver had even _expected_ something like this to happen! It was why he had insisted on there being a ‘chain of command’ in the Justice League Council in case he was incapacitated, and why he had been wearing the Kryptonite ring all these weeks. He had known Zod would try something to take him out of action in preparation for whatever attack the Kryptonian warlord was planning.

Laurel was pulled out of her thoughts by the sniffling coming from Thea. She turned and pulled the girl into a hug, and Thea clung to her while staring Oliver, wrapped in the tendrils of the black plant.

Superman came in for a landing on the balcony a few minutes later and entered the loft through the door just as Barry and Sara came back downstairs. “There’s no one upstairs,” Sara reported. “Looks like this was the only form of attack.”

“And it’s a cunning one,” Superman said grimly as he took in the sight of the plant wrapped around his friend. “This is a plant known as the Black Mercy. A parasite of sorts, it feeds on the psychic energy of it’s target by trapping them in a dream world, their perfect life.”

“Then he could wake up,” Laurel said. “He told me he fought off a dream world by the Dominators in the last timeline. He could do it then; he can do it now.”

“Unlikely,” Superman said with a shake of his head. “He told me about it, as well, and the Dominators tried to trap all of their captives in a single dream world instead of trapping them in their own separate dream worlds, which led to that dream world collapsing. More importantly, the illusion of the Black Mercy grows stronger over time, though if someone is mentally strong, they eventually realize it’s a dream world and attempt to break free. But the Black Mercy doesn’t let go of it’s prey easily. It will fight back if Oliver begins to break free of its hold.” **_*4*_**

“Then what do we do?” Laurel asked fearfully.

“I don’t know,” Superman admitted. “I’ll have to consult the Fortress for more information. I only know about the Black Mercy because it was listed as one of the things being held on Fort Rozz.”

“So, this was Zod,” Laurel said softly.

“Yes, and if he’s doing this now, it means he’s ready to launch his campaign to conquer Earth,” Superman said grimly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* I debated on whether or not I wanted to have Barry continue on as Chronos and be a member of Oliver’s team for the next sevenish years in-universe, but I decided in the end that The Flash being around will see other enemies rise up, both for Barry personally and for the Justice League. So, I hashed this out with Okoriwadsworth and TheWhiteWolf in the Lauriver Discord.
> 
> *2* This bit about the girl who was found in Mericle Plaza is setting some stuff up for Volume III of the main series, which I’ve begun planning out with a bit more confidence. But you won’t hear much about this beyond what’s been done for obvious reasons.
> 
> *3* Yep, Oliver’s been attacked by the Black Mercy, but this one physically is not the version from “Supergirl”, but rather the one from “Krypton”.
> 
> *4* The only reason the heroes escaped the dream world the Dominators trapped them in was because it was trying to accommodate too many wishes/dreams/desires from multiple sources. If they had trapped them in separate dream worlds, then it might’ve been different. It would’ve taken something big to shake them out of accepting that world as reality. As it happens, the Dominator technology was a bit flawed.


	58. Battle Preparations, Part 1

_Oliver Queen circled the back of the plot of land upon which the Queen Mansion sat, dressed in a pair of green jogging pants and a green hoodie, a content smile on his face. He had woken up this morning to the same sight he had for the past two years, that of his beautiful fiancé in the bed next to him, sleeping soundly. It was a sight that he would soon be committing to waking up to for the rest of his life, which was hardly a hardship. He loved Dinah Laurel Lance with all of his heart and soul, and where the idea of marrying her had once terrified him, now it was exhilarating. It was even better in that he had his family once more at his side. Ironically, he had the likes of Damien Darhk to thank, which he had done, right before he cut off the bastard’s head and made sure the body was cremated._

_Darhk, at the suggestion of Slade, had concocted what had to be the most absurd plan ever to knock Oliver off-balance. At the beginning of his second year as a vigilante in this lifetime, five months after the Justice League had tracked Zod and his army down and defeated them in the desert, where no civilian casualties could be had, Oliver had been at home alone, cooking dinner, when there had been a knock on the door. When he had answered it, he had found his father and mother on the other side, alive and well. He had taken them to the Robert Queen Applied Sciences Center and had Caitlin Snow make sure they weren’t clones or someone who had gotten plastic surgery to look like his parents, even checked that their DNA profiles were right._

_When all of the tests came back positive that these were Robert and Moira Queen, Oliver had asked how it was possible. Robert had said that it was a man named Damien Darhk who had brought them back, said it was a ‘gift’ to Oliver before the darkness consumed him. Oliver had known what that meant, of course; Darhk was giving him a chance at happiness solely to take it away, no doubt by having Slade or Simon kill his parents and force him to face their deaths all over again. Oliver had told his parents what he thought, and they had questioned why he thought someone would do that. He had told them everything: about Green Arrow, about defeating Malcolm, founding the Justice League, saving the world from Zod, all of it. He had waited with bated breath, certain he would be condemned for going after their ‘societal equals’, but instead Robert had thanked him for fulfilling his dying wish and Moira had told him she was so proud of him. ***1***_

_That had been three years ago. This year was the year that Prometheus would have shown up if Oliver hadn’t already sent Simon to hell where he belonged, following Sara’s advice when Prometheus did show up and killing him. It felt like a true commencement of everything that Oliver had done over both of his lives, and it was beginning with a day that he had been ready for ever since defeating Zod: in less than forty-eight hours, Oliver was going to be marrying the love of his life, Dinah Laurel Lance, whose status as a hero had seen reforms ushered through that allowed her to take the Bar exam again and be both a lawyer and Black Canary, which he was glad for. Laurel Lance was made for so much more than playing shopkeeper at a flower shop. Lance Floral had become Sherwood Floral and was now under the management of Oliver’s sister Thea, while Laurel was tapped to become the District Attorney recently and had just won her first case in that position._

_More importantly, the Justice League had discovered a method to monitor and travel to alternate Earths thanks to Barry becoming The Flash and them monitoring the kind of energy he gave off when he traveled fast enough to travel between worlds. With that ability in play, they had helped free Earth-2 from the grip of the metahuman terrorist known as Zoom and helped bolster the forces of the Resistance on Earth-X, bringing justice to those monsters once and for all. This ability to monitor other worlds had given them a warning when the Anti-Monitor broke free early. The Justice League had worked together with heroes from across the multiverse and, while many universes had been lost, many more remained intact and the Anti-Monitor had been destroyed. The Crisis had come and been averted, and Oliver’s reason for being had been fulfilled. Now, aside from the occasional mission for the Justice League, he fought for the people of Star City, as it was now called. He had even managed to free his sister Thea from having to become a vigilante and saved his friend Tommy from becoming his father by challenging Ra’s and defeating him, replacing him with Talia, who had been willing to grant him a boon upon her ascension as thanks for giving her that which she had wanted for years. Tommy himself was engaged to Helena Bertinelli, a surprising relationship, though it fit, considering both wanted to be the complete opposite of what their fathers had been._

_Oliver entered the pool house, sweat glistening on his forehead as the shower shut off. A slender arm reached out and grabbed a towel, pulling it into the shower stall. A few moments later, Dinah Laurel Lance stepped out, her hair pulled up and tied in a bun of sorts, the towel wrapped around her torso. Laurel smiled at Oliver, coming up and wrapping her arms around his neck, pulling him close and delivering a quick, searing kiss to his lips._

_“Dinah Laurel Lance,” Oliver said softly, pulling away and smiling down into Laurel’s beaming features, “will you marry me?”_

_Laurel smiled impishly and held up her left hand, upon which rested the engagement ring Oliver had put there almost a year ago. “I think I already answered that question,” she said. “Good morning, Ollie.”_

_“Good morning, pretty bird,” Oliver said, kissing her again. “How was your morning run?”_

_“It was great,” Laurel said. “Yours?”_

_“Fine, just need to shower now,” Oliver said. “See you at breakfast?”_

_“Definitely,” Laurel replied. “Though this morning is pretty much booked solid for me with wedding prep. Your mother and mine are intent on making this the most perfect wedding in the history of perfect weddings, even though Mom won’t be here until tonight.”_

_“I did give you the option to elope,” Oliver said._

_“Yes, you did,” Laurel replied. “But that’s not who we are, Ollie. Besides, knowing our luck, Dusan al Ghul would pop up proclaiming a desire to avenge his father’s defeat and completely ruin it if it was just the two of us. The entire Justice League and a few other heavy-hitters are coming to this wedding. We’re all but assured a peaceful ceremony. Besides, how could I give up the chance to show everyone just how much I love you?”_

_“Excellent counter-arguments, counselor,” Oliver said teasingly. “I’ll see you at breakfast.”_

_“See you there,” Laurel said, picking up her clothes and heading for the changing rooms. Oliver began to strip down to take his own shower, feeling peaceful and content. All was right with the world._

**_*DC*_ **

Dinah Laurel Lance was holding onto Thea Queen, comforting the younger woman, who was doing her best to keep her composure while staring at her brother, lying so still and motionless on the ground. Superman was standing nearby, talking with Sara and Barry in low voices. Laurel wished she could hear what they were saying, but super-hearing wasn’t her power, and she assumed that Superman was talking to Barry and Sara about what else to expect from the Black Mercy or perhaps what was going to happen if Oliver remained incapacitated when Zod launched his attack, as he was sure to do now that he had incapacitated Oliver for the foreseeable future. It had to be just incapacitated; Laurel wouldn’t accept the possibility that the Black Mercy would… that _Ollie_ would… Laurel ruthlessly shoved down the despair that rose up in her; she wouldn’t be of any use to anyone if she broke down crying right now. Thea needed her, and if their suspicions about this were accurate, than the _world_ needed her to be ready, too.

There was a knock on the door. Laurel passed Thea off to Sara and went to the door, opening it. Alex Danvers was on the side with a team from the D.E.O. Laurel silently stepped back and swung the door open wider. Alex entered, followed by a pair of medics and then a strike team. “Any sign of any other alien hostiles?” Alex asked.

“None,” Superman said, “though there’s every chance Zod has people watching us from a distance.” Alex nodded shortly as the two medics knelt beside Oliver and began checking him over. “It’s called a Black Mercy,” Superman added, seeing Alex looking down at the plant. “It’s a parasitic plant that feeds off of psychic energy.”

“How?” Alex asked.

“It taps into the pleasure centers of the brain and puts the victim into their perfect dream world, paralyzing the body as it does so,” Superman replied. “This allows it to feed for as long as it can keep the host alive, which seeing as it’s a plant with its own nutrient production is quite some time. The illusion of the dream world grows stronger the longer the victim is under its control. I’d have to look up more information in the Kryptonian library I have access to. I wanted to wait to make sure you got here, find out where you’ll take him so I can come to you with the information when I get it.”

“Something like this, the director wants our best minds put to work on it,” Alex replied. “We’re to take Mr. Queen to Metropolis, where our headquarters is located. Dr. Emil Hamilton is standing by to examine this thing, and they’re planning on asking Lex Luthor to consult. He’s consulted on a couple of other things for the D.E.O., starting with the aftermath of the Battle of Amnesty Bay.” Alex gave Superman a hard look. “I need your honest assessment. Is this a first step towards something larger?”

“Yes, I believe so,” Superman said. “Zod is a cunning strategist, and the best way to deal with your enemy is to remove their leadership, leaving those working under them floundering. After Amnesty Bay and Gotham, the Justice League would’ve been seen as the greatest threat to Zod, especially after what Oliver did to Ursa. Zod would want to hurt our chances right off the bat. Also, I believe I know the target of his attack.” Alex straightened at that, and the remaining D.E.O. agents looked at Superman in interest. “My family are responsible for the Phantom Zone being used as a prison, and my father in particular is responsible for Zod’s imprisonment on Fort Rozz. I believe he’ll attack Metropolis as the first stage of his conquest, lay waste to one of our most populous cities and get his revenge on my father through me at the same time. I’ve already informed Wonder Woman of this, as she is the acting leader of the Justice League with Oliver incapacitated. She, Green Lantern, and Aquaman are all en route to Metropolis as we speak. She’ll have contacted Batman as well.”

“We’ll coordinate everything out of the D.E.O. HQ,” Alex said. “Alright, let’s get Mr. Queen ready for transport. We have a long flight ahead of us.”

“Not if you take the Justice League’s express route,” Superman said.

“What do you mean?” Alex asked.

“We decided we wanted to make sure we had a way to get to major cities so another Gotham couldn’t happen,” Laurel replied. “Oliver and Superman worked together to set up trans-mat portals in every major city, including Metropolis. We can use the trans-mat portal here in Starling, at the Quiver, to get there.” Laurel hesitated. “It would also let you stock up on Kryptonite weaponry. Oliver’s spent the past few months working non-stop on an arsenal. He has arrows, swords, bullets, brass knuckles… anything and everything you could use, he made it and it’s waiting to be used. If this is it, then the D.E.O. and the Justice League is going to _need_ that arsenal.”

“Agreed,” Alex said, nodding decisively. “Okay, we’ll use the trans-mat portal. I need to know where we’ll be coming out so I can give HQ a location to send cars to.” Superman went over to the counter where there was some scratch paper and scribbled down an address before ripping it off and handing it to Alex, who pocketed it. “Okay, I will need everyone who was exposed to this thing to come with us to go through health checks, just in case it has some kind of contamination.”

“We understand, Agent Danvers,” Laurel said. She turned to Sara and Barry. “You two will need to grab your uniforms while we’re at the Quiver. I’m pretty sure we’re gonna need all hands on deck for this.”

“You got it, Laurel,” Sara said.

“Yeah, we’re with you,” Barry said.

Laurel took Thea by the shoulders and held her close. “Come on, Speedy,” she said. “We need to go.”

“I’ll find out what I can about the Black Mercy and get back to Metropolis as soon as I can,” Superman promised Alex, and then headed for the balcony. He was out and off before she could get a word out.

Alex stared after Superman for a minute, then turned to Laurel and the others. “Come on. Let’s get to this ‘Quiver’ and get on our way.” She pulled out her cell phone as they exited the loft, getting ready to call this in. The D.E.O. was going to be scrambling to be on a war footing A.S.A.P., especially if Superman’s suspicion was accurate and General Zod’s target was Metropolis.

**_*DC*_ **

_“Morning, everyone,” Oliver said cheerily as he took a seat beside his fiancé at the breakfast table._

_“Morning, Ollie,” Thea said brightly from across the table, where she was sitting with her boyfriend, Roy Harper. The two of them lived in their own place in town at the moment, though Moira and Robert had assured them they were welcome to a room at the mansion whenever they desired it. “You feeling nervous?”_

_“A little,” Oliver said. “Mostly about getting up in front of everyone and then suddenly forgetting my vows or getting too tongue-tied. But other than that? I’m excited because I finally get to have this beautiful woman beside me as my wife.”_

_“And I’m definitely excited for this since I’ve been waiting for this day for almost ten years,” Laurel said, clutching Oliver’s upper arm and beaming at him. “I knew that once we started being Black Canary and Green Arrow that it would take time before we could do this, and it’s been a long journey. But we’re here, finally, and I couldn’t be happier.”_

_“And we’re happy for you both,” Robert Queen said with a genial smile at his son and soon-to-be daughter-in-law. “We’ve always seen how you bring out the best in our son, Laurel, and you’ve done that as much with his work as Green Arrow as you have his other goals and duties. Though it’s probably good that you’re tying the knot_ before _Oliver launches his campaign to be mayor. This way there’s no claim of nepotism when he confirms he’s keeping you as his D.A. since you’ll have built up quite the reputation by the time the polls open in November.”_

_“Yes, Laurel, you have always brought out the best in my son,” Moira said, “and I couldn’t be prouder to call someone my future daughter-in-law.” She cut a bit of her fried egg off and speared with a fork. “When will your family be getting in from Central City?”_

_“Sara and Barry will be getting here this morning,” Laurel said. “They decided to take the train. Mom and Dad decided they would rather drive, spend some time together, so they won’t be here until this evening.”_

_“Good,” Moira said after she had chewed and swallowed the bit of fried egg. “Tommy and Helena are due to come around noon to help begin preparations for the rehearsal dinner, and Slade and Shado will be here this afternoon. The rest of our guests will be arriving throughout the day.”_

_Oliver smiled. “It’ll be good to see Slade and Shado again,” Oliver said. Shado had likewise been resurrected by Darhk to try and screw with Oliver, and she, along with the cure for the Mirakuru that Arthur had found in the wreckage of the_ Amazo _, had been the deciding factor that had brought Slade back from the abyss. She and Slade were now married (Oliver had been best man) and had had a son. Slade had also reconciled with his son, Joe, and had been given visitation rights for Grant, who was now approaching ten years old and had had to be given the cure of the Mirakuru as well, as he had shown signs of instability and hallucinations common to those under the influence of the substance. They had had definitive proof that the Mirakuru could be transmitted from parent to child with Grant, which had gotten Dr. Caitlin Snow babbling when she found out because she had never heard anything like it before. ***2***_

_“In the meantime, what are your plans, Oliver?” Moira asked._

_“I thought I’d go to the Quiver, make sure everything’s okay there and that we’re not getting any nasty surprises,” Oliver said. “I mean, I don’t expect anyone to. We’ve got the_ entire _Justice League coming along with diplomatic envoys from Atlantis and Themyscira. You would have to be a fucking fruitcake to attack the wedding of the century, as Susan and Lois call it.”_

_“Ah, yes, Susan and Lois,” Moira said. “Lois is probably going to try and talk you into a third book since you were foolish enough to sell your_ life story _to her instead of just the story of your becoming Green Arrow, Oliver.”_

_“A small price to pay,” Oliver said. “Besides, a third book would be as focused on Arthur and Diana since it would cover the advent of Atlantis and Themyscira, and Lois and Clark are still living high off of the royalties of the first two books. I think I’m safe for at least another year or so.”_

_“You said that after the first book,” Laurel pointed out dryly._

_“Fair point,” Oliver said after a moment, and the Queens and Roy chuckled along with Laurel at his sheepish expression. “Anyways, just because it’s unlikely someone will do something stupid, I want to make sure that everything’s good. So, I’ll be at the Quiver this morning.”_

_“Guess that means Roy and I can’t use the Quiver for our breaktime make-out sessions,” Thea sassed._

_“Nope, you’re gonna have to find somewhere else, Speedy,” Oliver said with a smile. He was happy that Roy and Thea had found each other. They had still been very tentative when the final showdown with Zod happened, dancing around each other. But that had gone away after their first patrol together as vigilantes. They had saved people and found each other’s work very attractive, and that had been the spark that lit their romance in the new timeline. So, Oliver was quite alright with Roy and Thea being together; hell, he had been the one to arrange all that time for them to spend together so it would happen! Why would he be disgruntled about them being together when he had practically played matchmaker?_

_“Laurel, the decorators will be here this morning, and I want you to make final approval on everything,” Moira said. “This is your wedding, and I want it just right for you. Dinah agrees.”_

_“Thank you, Moira,” Laurel said with a smile. “I’ve got nothing to do; I took the day off from work so I could be free for any wedding duties because I knew_ someone _was going to duck out and avoid those.” She eyed Oliver as she said ‘someone’._

_“Like I know what the difference is between maroon and burgundy bunting,” Oliver scoffed. “Black Canary you might be, you’re also a woman whose been dreaming of her wedding day for at least ten years. You probably had this all planned out the night I proposed.”_

_“Smart boy,” Laurel said with a grin, leaning in and giving him a kiss. “That’s what I love about you, Ollie. You don’t hide your intelligence like you used to. You don’t hide_ anything _about who you are the way you used to. And I love that I get to share my life with such an honest man.”_

**_*DC*_ **

“Wow,” Alex Danvers said as the D.E.O. agents and medics followed Barry, Sara, Laurel, and Thea into the Quiver from the underground garage. “This place is quite the set-up. This is where he hid during those two weeks on the run?”

“Yes,” Laurel said. “The Kryptonite arsenal is this way. Barry, there’s a manual by the trans-mat portal with instructions on how to work it and the right sequence for each city’s portal projector. Get it ready, would you?”

“On it,” Barry said, heading towards the trans-mat portal, which had been pointed out to him by Oliver the previous night, the medics following him with Oliver and the Black Mercy on a stretcher.

The rest of the D.E.O. agents plus Sara and Thea followed Laurel to a section of the Quiver that had been turned into what might as well have been called a smithing section. There were Kryptonite arrows by the dozen, Kryptonite swords in various forms, Kryptonite brass knuckles, Kryptonite Sais, Kryptonite bo staffs, Kryptonite daggers, and rows upon rows of Kryptonite bullets. “Holy… he doesn’t kid around, does he?” Alex said, taking in the veritable anti-Kryptonian arsenal that Oliver Queen had painstakingly forged. **_*3*_**

“No, he doesn’t,” Laurel said. “We all saw what Kryptonians can do at full power. An entire army was waiting in the wings. Like Ollie said to Ursa in Gotham, there are some people, some _beings_ that deal only in extremes, and it is naïve to believe anything less than extreme measures will stop them. I’m all for capturing and sending people to prison, but what we’re facing is a small-scale war, and Oliver wanted us all prepared for that.”

“Okay, start packing this stuff up, bullets first,” Alex told two of the D.E.O. agents, gesturing to lead-lined cases stacked in a corner. “I’m sure that’s what those are for.” The two men went over and pulled down one case.

Sara, meanwhile, was fingering the weapons, drawing an elegant single-edged Kryptonite sword from where it was hanging and tested it experimentally. “Ollie must’ve spent a lot of time learning how to forge a sword of this kind,” Sara said. “Of course, these days, you can find almost any kind of how-to video on YouTube. That’s what Barry tells me, anyways.”

“According to Henry, Oliver did spend a lot of time on the computer studying things like that,” Laurel said. “Ollie says he knows he’s not a master forger. He just worked on whatever he could.”

“Well, his crazy preparedness means we’re going to be ready for the Kryptonians once we add this to our arsenal of Red Sun weapons,” Alex said, gesturing around before picking up a pair of Kryptonite knuckles. She slid them into place and flexed her fingers experimentally. “Nice,” she said appreciatively. “I’m claiming these ones. Odds are that the Kryptonians hit the D.E.O. in numbers, especially once we start marshaling our forces.”

“Sounds like an accurate assessment,” Sara said, having put the sword back and now experimenting with a pair of Kryptonite Sais. “I think I’ll use these and a sword, myself. Laurel, what about you?”

“Bo staff,” Laurel replied. “I’ve been training with one since Ollie finished them. I’m familiar with how they work.”

“Alright, we’re all set over here,” Barry called to them from the other end of the Quiver. “As soon as you’re ready, just tell me, and we’ll get going.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* So, this is actually some self-deprecation. I was doing some brainstorming for Volume III and got hung up on the idea of having H.I.V.E. resurrect Robert and Moira, and maybe even Shado as well. I ended up floating the idea to the Lauriver Discord, and they eventually convinced me it was a half-baked idea. Which, I realized, would be perfect fodder for a perfect dream world, and after I decided to do the whole Black Mercy thing, I thought, “Why not?”
> 
> *2* As I said, Shado being resurrected to screw with Oliver was another idea I had for Volume III that was (rightly) shot down as being half-baked. But that fits for a dream world. And since Oliver wants Slade to be back as part of his life, it seemed fitting Shado would have played a role in that along with Arthur finding the Mirakuru cure.
> 
> *3* I will remind everyone that Oliver has had a couple of months at least to forge all of these weapons and has especially had a lot of free time since he stepped down as C.E.O. of Queen Consolidated. In my opinion, he would have devoted all of his free time to forging those weapons in preparation for the final confrontation with Zod and his forces.


	59. Battle Preparations, Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I am very pleased to announce that “The Age of Heroes” is officially complete as of last night. After this chapter, there will only be four story chapters and the afterword left to post. In celebration of the end of another journey, I am uploading the rest of the story today. I hope everyone enjoys what I’ve written, because I enjoyed writing it.

The D.E.O. convoy pulled into the underground garage of their downtown Metropolis headquarters, and those within exited. Among those exiting the vehicle were the other members of the Justice League, including Batman and Nightwing, who had tagged along when Batman received the call from Wonder Woman. White Canary and The Flash were already in uniform, having changed at the Quiver, as was Black Canary, who was carrying a bag containing Oliver’s Green Arrow uniform, his bow, and a quiver stocked full of Kryptonite arrows, knowing that _when_ Oliver woke up, he would want to get right into the fight. Her own bo staff was tucked under her arm, and she had a grim expression on her face as Oliver was wheeled out of the blacked-out ambulance that had been standing by at the Metropolis ‘trans-mat’ location, which was where they had picked up Batman, Nightwing, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern. “Alright, people, let’s get Mr. Queen up to the medical wing,” Alex Danvers said. “And start unloading the Kryptonite arsenal. We have no idea when or if Zod is going to attack, but if he does, we need to be ready for him.”

The Justice League, White Canary, Nightwing, and The Flash followed Alex and the two medics to the nearest elevator and got onboard. Black Canary’s green eyes were fixed on the Black Mercy and her boyfriend, who remained still and unresponsive to outside stimuli. She hoped that this Emil Hamilton and Lex Luthor could come up with something to free Oliver from this. Black Canary didn’t know what she was going to do if the Justice League had to be deployed before Oliver was freed from the Black Mercy. She knew what she was _supposed_ to do; Oliver would expect her to go out and protect people, and most of her was agreeing with that sentiment. It was the small, but currently rather loud, part of her that selfishly wanted to be at Oliver’s side until he broke out of this that was keeping her distracted as the elevator climbed up through the building.

The elevator doors opened, and they exited to find Director Sam Lane waiting with Lex Luthor and a thin dark-haired man that they could assume was Dr. Emil Hamilton. “We’ve got the medical wing prepped and waiting,” Director Lane said, gesturing for the medics to follow Lex and Hamilton. The Justice League and their ‘trainee’ members came to a stop with Alex in front of Lane. “We’ve got our eyes in the sky looking for any sign of the Kryptonian army, both here in Metropolis and elsewhere,” Lane said, gesturing for the Justice League and their cohorts to follow him. They did, and as they walked, Lane continued, “Once we’ve integrated Queen’s Kryptonite arsenal into our weapon loadout, our agents will be deployed around Metropolis. I would prefer it if you worked with our agents rather than running roughshod over them.”

“I see no reason that we can’t cooperate, Director Lane,” Wonder Woman said briskly. “It is what Oliver would want.”

“I suppose that’s true,” Lane said. “You know him better than I. My experience with Mr. Queen has been that he is reluctant to work with others. Though, having met Amanda Waller, I can see why that is.”

“Yes, Oliver has given us an illuminating description of Amanda Waller,” Aquaman said grimly. “Should we expect more of the same forces they deployed at Gotham?”

“If Zod’s worth the title of general, then yes,” Lane said. “They’ll be the cannon fodder while he holds his elite forces back, let them tire out the resistance. We need to find some way to negate their aerial advantage, because as it stands, they could just hover in the air and use that damned Heat Vision to burn us all to ash.”

“I may be able to help in this,” Aquaman said. He adjusted his grip on his trident, which, Black Canary realized with a start, was different from the one he had wielded in the Battles of Amnesty Bay and Gotham. It was far more ornate and seemed to almost glow with supernatural power. “This is the Trident of the Sea-God himself, Poseidon. It can create storms, and if I wield it’s power in this fashion, the Kryptonians will have to hover within striking distance of your weapons to avoid the lightning.”

“I’ll take it,” Lane said with a decisive nod.

“You found the Trident of Poseidon?” Wonder Woman asked. “Legend on Themyscira says it was cast into the ocean as the Sea-God’s final act after Ares’ betrayal.”

“It had been found and placed in the ruins of the Old City,” Aquaman confirmed. “It was in one of the many temples of old.”

“Sir, we’ve got reports of activity in downtown Metropolis,” said an agent who came up running up to them. “Initial reports indicate an alien incursion.”

“What kind?” Lane asked.

“Firestarters, like the ones from Gotham,” the agent replied.

“So, it’s begun,” Lane said grimly. “Deploy Strike Team A as soon as they’re ready.” He looked at the Justice League. “If you can be there quicker, do it.”

“Aquaman, you and Flash will go help,” Wonder Woman decided. “Flash, focus on evacuating the civilians. Leave dealing with the Dethmari to Aquaman. Continue to evacuate civilians as the battle continues. We want to keep casualties as low as possible and you’ll be more useful getting people out of danger than fighting Kryptonians.”

“ _You got it,_ ” The Flash replied. He stepped up to Aquaman, and they were gone in a flash of goldenrod lightning.

Lane stared at where the two had been. “Metahuman?” he asked.

“Yes,” Black Canary said. “And like me, he’s a member of the Justice League. Oliver confirmed that before he was attacked.” Lane nodded, showing he wasn’t going to push. “What about the rest of us?”

“Considering we need to hold this building when the Kryptonians attack, I would like you, Miss Lance, to be on hand,” Lane said. “And I suspect the members of the League without powers will be of more use here.”

“So, that’s us,” White Canary said, gesturing to herself, Batman, and Nightwing. Batman nodded grimly; he wasn’t in his usual black uniform but an armored gray version made from ceramic plates with Kryptonite ‘cells’ dotted at the joints, fueling both a strength enhancement to his attacks while also providing him some security from the Kryptonians if they got close to him. “Alright, just tell us where you need us.”

“Agent Danvers will be coordinating the defense of the D.E.O.,” Lane said, gesturing to Alex, who straightened slightly. This was an enormous responsibility. “I have to brief the president on just how screwed we are and scramble as much support as I can. Agent Danvers, take charge until I’ve finished.”

“Yes, sir,” Alex replied. Lane headed off. “Okay, let’s go talk to the head of security, start preparing for a siege.” She turned, and the Justice League followed after her, Black Canary wondering what was going on in the medical wing with Oliver. **_*1*_**

**_*DC*_ **

_Oliver Queen entered the Quiver with a smile on his face left over from breakfast. “Hey, Oliver,” Henry Fyff said from his place behind the computers. “No offense, but shouldn’t you be doing wedding stuff right now?”_

_“None taken, and as I told Laurel, it’s not like I know the difference between burgundy and maroon bunting,” Oliver replied. “I just want to make sure everything’s okay. Nothing’s happening, right? No super-villains popping out of the woodwork? No multiverse threats? Nothing that could ruin the next thirty-six hours?”_

_“Nothing, Oliver,” Henry confirmed. “I’ve been keeping an extra eye on the feeds coming in from the Justice League HQ, just in case, and there’s nothing happening anywhere in the world. No super-villains from this world or any other making moves that need your attention, and even the common criminals in Star City seem to be going on hiatus. Probably cuz they know if they screw up this happy event, you’re going to break their legs before Laurel eviscerates them with her tongue.”_

_“Good,” Oliver said. “I’m glad nothing’s happening. Surprised, but glad. I want this to be perfect, Henry. After everything Laurel’s been through, after everything I’ve put her through, I want to give her at least one perfect day. She’s been through hell to become Black Canary, and I put her through hell by being such a jerk when we were younger. If I can give her this one perfect day, than maybe all of that will have been worth something.”_

_“So, what now?” Henry asked. “I mean, if nothing’s happening, not much point in you being here.”_

_“Now?” Oliver asked. “Now, I suck it up, go back to the mansion, and ask what I can do to help prepare for the rehearsal dinner and the wedding. I have no excuses to avoid groom duties.” Oliver clapped Henry on the shoulder. “Keep an eye on things and if anything happens…”_

_“I’ll go upstairs and get Roy and Thea,” Henry said. “This is a special couple of days for_ both _you and Laurel, Oliver. Enjoy them. You can only get married for the first time once.”_

_“I don’t plan on getting married more than the one time, Henry,” Oliver said._

_“All the more reason to enjoy every moment of this,” Henry said. “Roy, Thea, and I can handle whatever might crop up, Oliver. Go. Be with your fiancé and imagine the things you’re gonna get up to on your honeymoon.”_

_Oliver left the Quiver with a goofy smile on his face._

**_*DC*_ **

Superman landed in the atrium of the D.E.O. headquarters and instantly raised his hands in a gesture of surrender as D.E.O. agents trained their weapons on him briefly. “I promise, I come in peace,” he said gently. Guns were slowly lowered as the D.E.O. agents recognized him. Superman didn’t take offense since they would be on edge thanks to the attack on Oliver and the strong suspicion that the remnants of Krypton’s military under Zod would be launching an attack within the next few hours.

Wonder Woman came marching up. “Kal-El, I assume you have the information the scientists need on the Black Mercy?” she asked.

“I do,” Superman confirmed, holding up a flash drive in his hand (he and Kelex had long since managed to reverse engineer a way to transfer files from the Fortress’ computers to flash drives). “Where are they?”

“The medical wing, this way,” Wonder Woman said, turning and gesturing for Superman to follow. As Superman fell into step beside her, Wonder Woman said, “The Dethmari have attacked downtown Metropolis. The Flash and Aquaman are handling defending and evacuating civilians. We’re currently dividing up the Justice League’s forces. Black Canary, White Canary, Batman, and Nightwing will be staying here while the rest of us confront the bulk of Zod’s forces out in the city.”

“Sounds good,” Superman replied. “And Zod?”

“No sign of him or the Kryptonian army as of yet, but we expect that to change soon,” Wonder Woman said, “especially since you’re here now. He was likely waiting for your arrival. Now that you have, he has no reason to hold his forces back.”

“Then as soon as I get this in the hands of the scientists, I’ll head out into the city and get ready for the attack,” Superman replied. “Have the others already deployed?”

“Yes,” Wonder Woman replied. “The Flash will be focusing on evacuating civilians, while Aquaman, Green Lantern, you, and I split up and take different districts of the city. Aquaman will be using the Trident of Poseidon to summon a storm and limit the ability of Zod’s army to strike from a distance. You’ll have to be careful, Kal-El, if you rise too high above the city.”

They arrived in the medical wing, where Lex Luthor and Dr. Emil Hamilton were studying the Black Mercy as best they could. “Doctor, Mr. Luthor, I have the information my people had on the Black Mercy,” Superman said, holding out the flash drive.

“Excellent,” Lex said, taking the flash drive and moving over to a computer. “Thank you for being willing to share this with us, Superman. And while now may not be the best time, I’d like for us to get together after all of this is over. I think we could do great things for humanity together.”

“When this is over, we’ll have time for that sort of thing,” Superman said agreeably. “For now, I should get out into the city. You should focus on getting Oliver out of the Black Mercy’s grip.”

“Yes, yes, we will,” Lex said, plugging the flash drive into the computer. **_*2*_**

Superman turned and left the medical wing without another word, lifting up into the air once he was back in the high-ceilinged atrium and shooting out into the city proper. He just hoped that Lois and Kara were safe. Lois had left work just after he did so that someone would be there when Kara got home. It was about five p.m., now; everyone was going home from their workday. This would be the perfect time for Zod to strike for maximum casualties. Superman knew his objective; he was the only one who could stop Zod, and if he took out Zod, it would make the Kryptonian army back off or surrender. Or, at least, he hoped it would. He didn’t want to be the _only_ Kryptonian left, but he knew his friends wouldn’t be holding back and he knew, deep down, that he couldn’t hold back either, this time. He would need all of his skills, all of the lessons he had learned in the past few months, to defeat General Zod. He had all the reason in the world to do so; Zod was a threat to the world and had threatened Superman’s family, something he couldn’t just ignore.

**_*DC*_ **

Black Canary and White Canary watched as Superman flew out of the D.E.O. headquarters. Black Canary was holding her bo staff loosely in her grip while White Canary was twirling her Sais leisurely. “This feels so wrong, doing this without Ollie here,” Black Canary finally said. “He should be here; he brought us together. Everything we’ve been through, every battle we’ve faced, he’s been there, helping us see it through, his voice guiding us.”

“ ** _Oliver knew the day might come when we would have to stand on our own,_** ” Batman said from nearby, drawing the Canary Sisters’ attention. “ ** _More importantly, he believed in us. He believed that we could band together even without him here to guide us. He said it at that meeting, Black Canary. He said that just as he told Merlyn, heroes were rising that would stand as champions for the world, with or without him. It’s time for us to fulfill the promise of his faith in us. We cannot fail._** ” **_*3*_**

Black Canary took a deep breath and nodded. “I know, and I have no intention of letting Oliver down,” she said. “I just wish he were here.”

“ ** _Don’t let it distract you,_** ” Batman replied, then turned to discuss something with Nightwing.

“Ollie’s gonna be alright,” White Canary said to her sister now. “What we gotta focus on is keeping any Kryptonians who come here at bay so that the geeks up in the medical wing can work on Ollie. With any luck, he wakes up _pissed_ and puts a bunch of arrows in the ones that break in here since he can’t get their leader.”

“That’s something I can do,” Black Canary said. “Now we just have to wait.”

“That’s sometimes the hardest part,” White Canary said wisely. “From what I’ve heard and seen, both Amnesty Bay and Gotham were drop everything and get moving. This is different. We know the enemy is coming. We just don’t know when or what form their attack will take. At least Aquaman’s got something to even the odds, keep them from just decimating everyone from high above.”

**_*DC*_ **

Up in the medical wing, Lex Luthor was studying the information on the Black Mercy that Superman had retrieved from wherever he kept the knowledge of Krypton hidden away from the world. “Fascinating,” Lex said. “The plant uses the pleasure centers of the brain as the method of entrapment, creating a dream world that is perfect for the person being trapped. This doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a peaceful world that Oliver has become trapped in, just that it’s perfect for him. The Black Mercy draws upon the unconscious desires of the target to create this perfect world. They don’t even know it’s a dream world because they don’t entertain these thoughts openly or even privately. And the illusion grows stronger the longer it goes on. The Black Mercy draws on the deepest and most desperate desires of the heart to trap it’s victims.”

“Anything about how to snap him out of it?” Dr. Hamilton asked.

“According to the records of the Kryptonian scientists, the subject has to acknowledge that the world they’re in is an illusion,” Lex replied. “This will allow them to seek out the ‘exit’, which will be something that represents the world, and how they see it, which shouldn’t exist in the world they occupy now. There are some notes about projecting the consciousness of another person into the dream world to try and guide the victim to the conclusion that it’s a dream world, but there were understandably few who were willing to risk becoming trapped in a dream world to test these theories.” Lex hummed for a moment. “As it stands, it makes me think of a project I’ve been working on, to project the mind into an illusion that one chooses. If I _tweak_ it, it could instead be used to match the wavelengths of one person’s brain with Oliver’s, allowing them to sync and this person to enter the dream world.” **_*4*_**

“Director Lane probably won’t authorize that until _after_ the battle with Zod is over, though,” Dr. Hamilton replied.

“Well, we have time,” Lex said. “According to the records, it takes upwards of two months for a Black Mercy to finish feeding on the victim, as it produces its own nutrients and shares them with the victim, to keep feeding longer. For now, we should take readings on Oliver’s brainwaves so that we know the _exact_ frequency to sync whoever goes in after him to.”

“Agreed,” Dr. Hamilton said, and the two scientists began working on doing just that.

**_*DC*_ **

_Oliver had spent the morning since returning to the Queen Mansion double- and triple-checking the seating arrangements for tonight’s rehearsal dinner. Tommy had arrived at noon with Helena, and while Tommy helped Oliver with his ungracious task, Helena joined Moira and Laurel in making sure the decorations were just right and indulging in taste-testing some of the dishes the caterers were whipping up. Oliver had tried to give Laurel the puppy dog eyes, but she had told him she didn’t want him scaring off the caterers with his secret chef talents. It was now mid-afternoon, and the final guests (aside from the Lance parents) were arriving, which meant he and Laurel were in the entrance hall of the Queen Mansion, waiting for the guests to come through the door. It opened, and Sara Lance and Barry Allen entered, followed by Slade Wilson and his wife, Shado._

_“Sar-Bear!” Laurel greeted in delight, gathering her younger sister up in a hug._

_Oliver shook Barry’s hand with a smile before turning to his two friends from Lian Yu. “Slade, Shado, good to see you both again,” he said, accepting the hug from Shado before entering into a one-armed bro-hug with Slade._

_“You’re looking well, kid,” Slade said. “I thought you’d be run half-ragged with wedding prep. Shado certainly put me through the ringer for ours.”_

_“Well, I_ am _younger than you were,” Oliver said teasingly, and ducked the swipe at his head from Slade’s bear-paw of a hand._

_“Damned kids,” Slade grumbled. Barry snickered, only to sober up when Slade gave him a menacing one-eyed glare, reminding the speedster that Slade was a reformed super-villain for the umpteenth time._

_“Well, everyone else has arrived except Quentin and Dinah,” Oliver said. “Bruce, Clark, Hal, Arthur, Roy, Henry, Tommy, and Dad are all ready to go pick up our tuxes when the two of you are ready,” he added, looking between Barry and Slade. “We’ve had to rent a couple of limousines to accommodate everyone.” This last bit was said with a cheeky grin, aimed as much at his friends as his fiancé._

_“Now, Ollie, you wouldn’t be saying anything about the fact the girls and I are going to have our own leisurely wedding prep, would you?” Laurel asked teasingly. “It’s not like you can’t afford it, as you keep telling me.”_

_“I know,” Oliver said with a grin. “And I know that what you’re up to is to make yourself as beautiful as possible. Not that you need any help there, pretty bird. You are the most gorgeous woman in any room as far as I’m concerned.”_

_“Nice save, Ollie,” Sara cackled as Laurel blushed becomingly._

_“Careful, kid, you’re making the rest of us look bad,” Slade said as the rest of the groom’s party started entering the room._

_“He’s always been that way,” Tommy said with his infectious grin. “I don’t get it.”_

_“Queen men are known for their suave nature,” Robert said with a smirk._

_“But not for their humility,” Moira added as she stepped out of the alcove. Robert smiled at his wife as she greeted Sara, Barry, Slade, and Shado. “I see everyone’s here, for the most part. Barry, Sara, Slade, Shado, the staff will make sure your things get to your rooms. We should be getting ready for our separate endeavors.”_

_“Yes, no need to stick around here,” Robert said. “Let’s all get out to the limos.”_

_A couple of hours later, Oliver, Robert, Tommy, Bruce, Hal, Henry, Slade, Barry, Roy, Arthur, and Clark were at the tux shop, making sure their tuxes fit and getting them adjusted as needed by the on-call tailors. Oliver was standing in front of a mirror directly in front of the window, and as he stood there, his eyes caught something off in the distance. He frowned, but said nothing, sure that he was imagining things. Merlyn Global had folded after Tommy disappeared following Malcolm’s death, and while Tommy still had the Merlyn fortune, he had had no interest in resurrecting the business. So why the hell was Oliver seeing the black monolith of Merlyn Global in the distance? That wasn’t possible; it hadn’t existed for months now!_

_Oliver felt a chill run down his spine as he remembered another building that didn’t exist, one that had served as an exit point from a dream world brought on by sadistic and cruel aliens. But that couldn’t be the case now, right? This wasn’t another dream world; it couldn’t be. So much had happened, so much he remembered, and it just didn’t seem possible that there could be a dream world this elaborate and detailed. No, it was just pre-wedding jitters, centered around the memory of the last wedding to Laurel that he had had, which had been in the dream world created by the Dominators. Still, there was something just on the edge of memory, something that told him that not all was right with the world. Oliver’s stomach churned at the possibility that this was a dream world. But if so, who had trapped him, and why? ***5***_

_A moment later, Oliver blinked, and the black monolith was blank. He shook his head. Yes, it had just been pre-wedding jitters. Merlyn Global was gone. He was not in a dream world. And he was going to marry the love of his life tomorrow. He was Oliver Queen, the guardian of Star City, the leader of the Justice League, the man who had averted the Crisis on Infinite Earths with the aid of the heroes that he had hand-picked to help him in this endeavor. Those were not elements of a dream, they were facts, and nothing was going to change that, not even pre-wedding jitters._

_“Oliver?” Robert asked, coming to stand beside his son. “Something wrong?”_

_“Just some pre-wedding jitters,” Oliver said with a smile. “I guess I’m having a hard time believing that this is finally happening.”_

_“You’ve earned it, Ollie,” Tommy said. “Everything you’ve done, everything you’ve accomplished… you’re a hero. You’ve earned this perfect day. Never doubt that, man.”_

_“I won’t,” Oliver said, smiling as he turned to focus on his tux again. He wanted to be presentable tomorrow, especially since for tonight he and Laurel would be sleeping in separate rooms due to the whole ‘no seeing the bride before the wedding’ thing. They weren’t exactly a traditional couple, but it was still something they wanted to do, because they didn’t get a lot of chances to be a normal couple even now, so they took it wherever they could. And what was more normal than a wedding in which the groom and bride slept separately the night before the wedding?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* The stuff about the Trident of Poseidon is my interpretation of the information on the DC wiki entry for the weapon in question. Batman’s suit is basically his Injustice 2 one.
> 
> *2* Yes, the irony of Superman trusting Lex with knowledge from the Kryptonian database is not lost on me, partly because Nyame mentioned it when I shared this particular segment on the Lauriver Discord.
> 
> *3* And here’s one reason I decided to go with the Black Mercy subplot. The Justice League needs to prove it can stand even without it’s leader.
> 
> *4* So, I actually based Lex’s comment about a technology he is working on off of the tech The Riddler creates in “Batman Forever”, but I realized most people are probably going to think of the Obsidian North subplot in “Supergirl” this past season.
> 
> *5* So, Ollie’s starting to have his suspicions, but the Black Mercy, unlike the Dominator technology, can adapt itself and show Oliver what he wants to see to keep him trapped. It’s gonna be tough for him to break out of this.


	60. Battle Royale, Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So, this chapter has something that definitely pushes the boundaries of the MA rating and borders on Explicit territory. You’ll know it when you see it because I let my GoT-ish tendencies go a little overboard this time.

Superman was the first to spot them, coming across the horizon like a menacing black cloud. He tapped his comms. “I’ve spotted Zod’s army, they’re coming in from the west,” he said. “Aquaman, now’s the time to give us that cover you were talking about.”

“Then you best get lower, Superman, because the storm will show no favoritism,” Aquaman replied over the comms. Superman lowered slightly so he was just above the buildings of Metropolis even as pitch-black storm clouds began to form over the city, thunder rumbling in the distance and rain beginning to fall. Within a minute, the storm was raging, and Superman could hear people in the streets below wondering over the sudden storm, how quickly it had appeared and wondering what was going on. Superman watched as the Kryptonian army flew closer, some breaking off in the direction of the D.E.O., others heading for places Superman knew his friends to be. Zod and his people must have been watching to know where the Justice League had deployed, and they were planning to focus on them first before decimating Metropolis. That was some good news, at least.

Zod and a contingent of ten soldiers flew to meet Superman directly. “Son of Jor-El,” Zod said, arms folded across his chest. “I once gave you the chance to kneel before me, pledge your loyalty to your people. I give you this chance one last time. Should you choose to not kneel, Non here has been ordered to seek out Lois Lane and Kara Zor-El and kill them. Join us, Kal-El, and those you love will be safe.”

“A genocidal madman’s word is untrustworthy,” Superman replied. “I will not kneel, Zod, and neither will my friends. You think you’ve crippled us by taking Oliver out of the equation. But he’s smarter than you are. He knew the day might come when he was incapacitated or even killed, and he knew that on that day, the world would need it’s champions. He agreed to form the Justice League because he knew this day would come, when the world would face a threat beyond what one man alone could handle. He had hope that we could stand in defense of the world, could inspire hope out of fear, and that he could entrust the world to us. We will not falter, Zod. We will not betray Oliver’s confidence. We will prove that he was right to choose us to carry this burden, right that the world needs us. You want the Earth? You’re going to have to break us first, and I promise you, we will not simply keel over and die for your pleasure. We will fight you to the last breath if need be.”

“Inspiring words, _Superman_ , but ultimately futile,” Zod replied coolly. “You are hopelessly outnumbered.” He looked at his men. “Begin,” he commanded. Instantly, nine of the men shot forward to engage Superman while Non shot away with a look of grim satisfaction on his face. Superman didn’t stick around to let himself get ambushed. He shot away, allowing the Kryptonians to chase after him, using his knowledge of Metropolis to keep them at a distance while he strategized. He had no idea what powers of his worked on his own kind; the only other Kryptonian around was Kara and there was _no way_ he was going to test his powers on a little girl who looked to him for guardianship and guidance! Maybe that was the kind of thing Zod would do, had probably even done; but that was something that Superman could never do.

Superman turned in midair and fired a blast of Heat Vision at the nearest Kryptonian soldier and was gratified to hear a shocked cry of pain as the man was blasted backwards, falling out of the sky with his uniform singed for a moment before rallying. So, at least one of the powers worked on his kind. He needed to test each of them. He continued to fly backward as he engaged his X-Ray Vision, which also seemed to work since he could see the skeletal structure of his enemies… including where their bones had broken prior to arriving on Earth, unless these were injuries sustained during their training here on the Earth. Superman doubted it, since he would guess they took the invulnerability thing and decided that that was enough. These old injuries could provide a weak point to attack, _if_ he could figure out how to land a blow.

Superman had studied up on what the yellow sun did to his kind and how it worked. In terms of powers and physical strength, he was stronger than his fellow Kryptonians since he had been here thirty-four years while they had been here a mere four months. But a tactician he was not, and this was the one area that the Kryptonian library couldn’t help him in since there hadn’t exactly been a study of the military impact of yellow solar radiation and the powers it granted their kind. So, he had to figure out how to land a blow on the fly and just how vulnerable his kind were to his powers, which were stronger than theirs. **_*1*_**

Speaking of, Superman dodged a blast of Heat Vision, only for his stomach to jolt when the blast sailed past him and hit an office building, cutting into the building and leaving a trail of fire. He couldn’t leave the people there to suffer, assuming there were any, and unleashed a powerful bout of Freeze Breath, knowing he was giving up his advantage. As soon as he was sure the fire was out, he shot downward, towards the street, pulling up just above the traffic flow and shooting down the street, his mind racing as he tried to figure out what he could do to take out _nine_ of his own kind. Only thing he could think of was lead them to one of the others. “Anyone free to help me deal with some hangers-on?” he asked.

“Bring them down my way, I got something for them,” Green Lantern offered.

“On our way,” Superman said, and hoped that Lois could hold on. She had the Kryptonite dagger Oliver had given her, and she was Sam Lane’s daughter; she had collected black belts like other women collect shoes (and had collected shoes while she was at it). She wasn’t going to be an easy target. _She can handle Non,_ Superman thought grimly to himself.

**_*DC*_ **

Lois Lane looked out at the dark and foreboding sky, wondering what could have brought on such a sudden and violent storm. As if they didn’t have enough to worry about if Clark’s suspicions about the attack on Oliver were true, they now had to worry about the _weather_ deciding now was the time to act up. Lois headed to the kitchen, where Kara was working on her homework at superspeed, which meant she was almost done. “You’re remembering to get some of those wrong, right, hon?” Lois asked.

“Yes, Lois,” Kara said. “I don’t see why I need to, though. I know what the answers are; they’re so simple!”

Lois sighed. “The thing is, if you get perfect scores all of the time, then the school is going to want you to take an IQ test, and that will show you to be a genius, like Clark is,” she said. “Geniuses on this world are very valued, Kara; governments and business empires actively seek to recruit geniuses when they’re still young and impressionable, like you are. They don’t actually _care_ about these people; they want to exploit them, and that’s the last thing Clark and I want for you, to be exploited. We know you’re smart, Kara, and we love that you’re so intelligent. But we worry that someone would take advantage of your guilelessness. There are a lot of unscrupulous people out there who would take an intellect like yours and use it for the wrong purposes. We want to protect you from that sweetie, that’s all. I hope you understand.”

“Yeah, I do,” Kara said with a sigh. “I just wish I could be _me_ with someone! Clark is able to do that with you. I want something like that.”

“And one day, you’ll have it,” Lois said, crouching down beside Kara and running a hand through the girl’s blonde hair. “I know it’s hard, Kara. You know, when I was your age, I didn’t have a lot of friends, either. None, in fact. I had to look after my little sister and that didn’t leave a lot of time for friends. It’s hard, especially at your age, but I’ll tell you a secret: you are not the only one lying about yourself at school. Everyone is. Middle school and high school are when kids are forming their own identities, figuring out their own values, and they experiment, put up fronts. The physically-inclined try their best to fit the jock stereotype even if they’re intelligent. The bubbly, popular girls all try hard to become the cheerleaders and Queen Bees of their little circles. But at the end of the day, they’ll always become who they are, and those are the people you’ll meet as an adult. Friendships at your age are fluid, and oftentimes don’t last. But friendships made in adulthood can last a lifetime.”

“But it’s so far away,” Kara moaned as she finished her homework.

“I know, and maybe you’ll find someone you can trust with your secret,” Lois said. “But you have to be careful, Kara.”

“I will be,” Kara said. “So, what’s for dinner?”

“Well, Clark isn’t here, so I’m afraid we’re ordering out,” Lois said.

“Pot stickers?” Kara asked, perking up more than a little at the mention of her favorite Chinese dish.

“Deal,” Lois said with a smile, reaching for the landline. A moment later, the wall facing out towards the street was blown apart, the carpet singeing from Heat Vision, and a figure floated through the hole blasted into the building. “Kara, run, go to your room!” Lois ordered, falling into old habits ingrained from her time practically raising Lucy. Kara did as directed without a word, sparing one terrified glance at the figure of the blonde-haired man touching down on the front room carpet. Lois grabbed her purse, hand going in and clutching around the Kryptonite dagger. “If you’re lucky, Clark will get here before _I_ deal with you,” Lois threatened.

“Amusing, that you think you can threaten me,” the Kryptonian sneered. “As for Kal-El, he is busy, and will be for some time. He is facing nine of Krypton’s finest warriors. By the time they have finished beating him into submission, you will be a broken wreck, and I will be taking my time to deal with the little girl. I never understood my wife’s obsession with her. Maybe once Kara Zor-El is dead, Astra will be able to think clearly again and see that General Zod’s vision is the only way to deal with your kind.”

“You’re not touching her, you smug son of a bitch,” Lois said, her blue eyes narrowing. “And I’m not as defenseless as you think.” She moved forward, pulling the Kryptonite dagger from her purse and it’s sheath as she did so, and stepping within striking range of the Kryptonian. He staggered, gasping in pain as his veins glowed green beneath the skin. “Kara’s told Clark and I all about her aunt… and her husband. Non, isn’t it? You know, on _this_ planet, the word non? It essentially means absence, nothing. You may have been hot shit on Krypton, before you got sent to the Phantom Zone anyways, but here on this planet, you’re nothing more than a smug bastard whose about to learn that humans can kick Kryptonian ass just as much as another Kryptonian.” Lois kicked Non in the balls, hard, and he sucked in a breath, dropping to his knees. Lois didn’t waste time pontificating or giving some grand speech. She simply drove the Kryptonite blade into Non’s chest, through his heart. Blood bubbled up passed his lips as he stared at her in shock. She twisted the blade harshly, and he gave a strangled groan of pain before collapsing, the blade still in his chest. **_*2*_**

Lois didn’t waste time; she went directly to Kara’s bedroom and found the thirteen-year-old girl (they had done the calculations and determined that Kara would’ve been born in the summer) huddled behind her bed, blue eyes terrified, though that terror fled as relief flooded her features. “Lois, you’re okay!” the little girl sang, springing forward and wrapping her arms around Lois, who held the girl close, clutching the back of her head and smiling.

“He wasn’t so tough,” Lois said, knowing that it was primarily the shock of her having Kryptonite that had kept Non from backing away from the range of the radiation. “You and I, we’re gonna stay in me and Clark’s room until he gets home, okay?”

“Okay,” Kara agreed, following Lois to the bedroom across the hall, not sparing a glance towards the living room, where Non’s body still lay, eyes glazed in death.

Lois idly noted that the landlord was going to throw a _bitch fit_ when he saw the hole in the wall. Unless there was a lot of damage from this attack on this street, it was gonna be hard covering up the fact that Non had come for them directly. They could cover and say he came for Lois, but that would just mean that the landlord would put the onus of repair costs on she and Clark. Hell, he probably would anyways since it would cost so much to repair the wall blown apart by Non. Good thing the book was pretty much done; the publisher would be giving her a hefty advance and on the off-chance it didn’t cover the damages, well, they _were_ friends with a billionaire.

**_*DC*_ **

Green Lantern fired off energy blasts with his ring, hitting the few Kryptonians who had shown up in his part of town so far in the chest and sending them spinning downward. He hadn’t been sure his energy blasts would do anything, but it seemed they were at least _stunning_ the Kryptonians, which was good. The D.E.O. agents on the ground were swarming the scene and the retort of gunfire could be heard. Green Lantern was a former Air Force pilot; he had never done the up-close-and-personal kind of killing that the D.E.O. agents were doing, but he understood the reasoning. Right now, they had no way to hold a Kryptonian prisoner and so they needed to make sure they couldn’t continue to pose a threat to the world, even if it meant a permanent solution.

“Green Lantern, I’m just around the corner and have nine bad guys on my tail,” Superman reported.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got something _really_ special for these guys,” Green Lantern said, focusing his willpower. A green aura surrounded him and expanded outward, solidifying as it went, until a giant green mecha that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a Kaiju movie was standing in the street, a heavy cannon under one arm and the other having an emerald blade ready to slash at his foes. Superman came around the corner at high speeds, red cape flapping behind him. “Lead them right down my throat, Superman,” Green Lantern called.

Superman obligingly flew passed Green Lantern, who raised the cannon arm and fired a high-powered energy blast from it, striking three of the Kryptonians at once and sending them spiraling downward. Green Lantern swung the emerald blade on his other arm, slashing at the nearest Kryptonian, catching him in the chest with the blade and sending him flying downward. He managed to stop, but by that point he was in the range of the D.E.O.’s guns, and they ripped him apart with Kryptonite bullets. Green Lantern fired another energy blast, which caught two more of the Kryptonians, and they fluttered down, meeting the same fate as the others. That left three, who turned and fled, Green Lantern firing after them and getting them in the back. “Damn, wish I’d thought of this one for Amnesty Bay!” Green Lantern said over the comms.

“Yeah, I can see that,” Superman said. “Gonna keep that up for the rest of the battle?”

“Hell, yeah,” Green Lantern said. “We got these guys, Superman. Go handle their dickhead leader.” Superman nodded and headed back towards the center of the city, dodging around flashes of lightning. Green Lantern, for his part, prepared to fight the next wave of Kryptonians and smiled. He loved his job.

**_*DC*_ **

When Channel 52 and its world-wide affiliates announced a special news bulletin coming in from Metropolis, people around the world sat up and took notice. When the Green Lantern formed a giant mecha from a Kaiju movie to battle the Kryptonian army, the reactions were varied, to say the least.

**_*DC*_ **

When the Channel 52 affiliate in Rome lit up, Slade Wilson wanted to groan. He was here to kill an ambitious cardinal who was making things unpleasant for H.I.V.E., and now he would have to sit through _another_ horrifyingly ugly revelation about just how fucked his plans for the kid, his beloved city, and his beloved Laurel were. _How can it get any worse?_ Slade raged in his head, even as he noticed everyone in the bar he was in sit up and take notice as images of an alien attack on Metropolis began to be seen. The shots cycled through various parts of the city, showing different heroes in the midst of battle before stopping as Superman appeared near where Green Lantern was. Then _it_ happened.

Green Lantern formed a giant fucking mecha like the kind used in Kaiju films like _Pacific Rim_ to bring the Kryptonians (and that had to be what they were since they had the same abilities as Superman) down, where they were killed by black-clad government agents firing glowing green bullets, which Slade could assume were made from the same mineral that Oliver had used to forge an arrowhead to kill that Kryptonian woman in Gotham City. According to Slade’s superiors at H.I.V.E., Oliver had called it Kryptonite. Their agents within the Department of Extranormal Operations had claimed the D.E.O. was no closer to finding a source of Kryptonite of their own. So, either the D.E.O. was keeping that on the need-to-know… or Oliver had been _very_ busy since Gotham and gifted the D.E.O. with their new arsenal to take down the Kryptonian army.

“That was amazing!” the Italian next to Slade said, clapping him on the shoulder excitedly.

That did it; the rage and indignation over the scuppering of his plans at every turn finally boiled over. With a roar of animalistic fury, Slade whirled and grabbed the man on either side of his head. “ _No!_ ” he snarled, his fingers digging into the side of the man’s head, who wailed at the pressure being put on his skull even as Slade’s thumbs found his eyes and began to press downward. More than a couple of men rushed forward to try and pull Slade’s arms away from the man, who was screaming as Slade’s thumbs dug into his eyes, the pressure building and building until his eyeballs finally pulped under the pressure. Slade was unmoved by the screams of the man as he continued to pour all of his rage and fury into crushing this insignificant little fuck’s head into a pulpy mass. “ _He is no hero! He is a traitor, and he and every last member of his fucking League will burn!_ ” The man’s skull caved beneath the pressure Slade was putting on it, and the man’s screams were cut short as Slade’s hands filled with blood and brain matter. He let the body drop and turned a furious brown eye onto the petrified patrons.

The Italian was the first man he killed as the news story continued to air, but not the last. **_*3*_**

**_*DC*_ **

In Nanda Parbat, it was early morning and the day had already begun for most of the assassins who weren’t out on missions, including Ra’s al Ghul, his daughter, Nyssa, and his personal student, Al Zil. When a Raven came up to them at a fast pace where they were training, Ra’s held up a hand to pause the training and asked a simple question. “Where?”

“Metropolis, master,” the assassin replied. “It is… an unbelievable sight.”

“Then let us see it,” Ra’s said grimly, gesturing for Al Zil and Nyssa to follow him. They followed the Raven to the intelligence room and focused immediately on the news feeds surrounding what would no doubt come to be called the Battle of Metropolis, in the vein of Amnesty Bay and Gotham City. The first thing that stood out was the Green Lantern forming a giant mechanical being around him with his powers and firing energy blasts at the Kryptonians that came at him.

“Green Lantern must be a fan of Kaiju films,” Al Zil said unexpectedly. “That’s where you see stuff like that. Godzilla and all that.”

“God… Zilla?” Nyssa asked with difficulty, unable to tear her eyes off the sight of the giant mechanical being that the Green Lantern had summoned to surround him. What kind of beings could give a single person so much power? They had thought that what was seen at the Battles of Amnesty Bay and Gotham was impressive, but this was something beyond that. This was… god-like.

“Giant sea monster that feeds off nuclear energy, sometimes he’s the villain, most of the time he’s the hero,” Al Zil said idly. “Ollie and I used to watch the old Godzilla movies when we were kids.”

“I… see,” Nyssa said.

“There’s no way Oliver and the rest who don’t have powers are out in this,” Al Zil added. “What could they do against the Kryptonians?”

“What, indeed,” Ra’s mused. “And I have watched the flashes to different battles. There is no sign of Oliver Queen, Laurel Lance, or Bruce Wayne. But there is a fifth powered individual. Many times, I have seen a flash of golden lightning before someone is saved from certain doom. Mr. Queen appears to have recruited another enhanced individual like Miss Lance.”

The three and the rest of those in the room focused on the large monitor, which still showed the giant mecha that Green Lantern had formed around him and the smaller forms of government agents crowded beneath it.

**_*DC*_ **

Damien Darhk stood in the conference room with the rest of the H.I.V.E. leadership: his wife, Ruve; Milo Armitage; Mina Fayad; and Phaedra Nixon. All of their eyes were fixated upon the screen as the banner at the bottom read _Attack on Metropolis_ while Kryptonians flew about running amok and wreaking havoc, fought by the D.E.O. (who were firing what looked like Kryptonite bullets, which meant their agents inside the D.E.O. had failed to keep them updated and needed to be punished accordingly once this was all over) and, thus far, the bulk of the empowered members of the Justice League.

When Green Lantern formed a giant mecha that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a Kaiju film, Darhk’s brows drew together in incredulity. It appeared Green Lantern had saved the best for this last, great battle against the forces of General Zod. Damien mused over whether the man had considered forming a glowing green Godzilla. Personally, Darhk found Godzilla a little tame, a little too goody two-shoes for a movie monster. He preferred King Ghidorah. Now there was a movie monster. **_*4*_**

“How are we supposed to fight something like _that_?” Milo Armitage demanded to know.

“Patience,” Damien said. “We’ve all seen the footage from the other battles. Green Lantern has to conserve his energy. What he’s doing now will draw a great deal of energy I’m sure and won’t be a part of his normal arsenal. We have existed for over two hundred years. We have seen more than a few amazing individuals. Green Lantern and the others are no different. And just as they have incredible strengths, they also have incredible weaknesses, like Superman’s is Kryptonite. All we need to do is find out what the ‘Kryptonite’ of the others is.”

“And in the meantime?” Mina Fayad asked.

“In the meantime, we do our best to not draw the attention of the Justice League,” Darhk said mildly. Honestly, did he have to spell it out for them like they were the children of the unwashed masses? He had chosen them to join him in the upper echelons of H.I.V.E. because he thought they were intelligent. Perhaps it was time to consider doing some pruning and finding those better suited to such things. No, that was too hasty; he would wait and see how they reacted to the rest of the Battle of Metropolis.

He just hoped there weren’t any more unpleasant surprises coming up for them. It would take all of his efforts to keep his people focused on the endgame if the Justice League had anything more powerful up their sleeve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* I double-checked this with members of the Lauriver Discord and they confirmed for me that this is accurate that Superman’s abilities and strength would be greater than that of his fellow Kryptonians since he’s been on Earth longer. But that advantage is more or less negated by the fact that they have military discipline and combat training whereas he does not.
> 
> *2* I had to double-check the meaning of ‘non’ to make sure it fit with what I wanted Lois to say. And thus the Non of Earth-1 dies with a whimper at the hands of a ‘weak, pitiful human’. I hope people enjoyed this little scene.
> 
> *3* So, this has been building the entire volume, with each successive battle and/or revelation slowly pushing Slade even further into his insanity and rage. I knew I needed to pay it off, and I decided it had to be either this or a Fisk Special (head smashed to bits with a car door or something). I went for the Oberyn Special because that scene, when it happened, had my jaw fucking drop.
> 
> *4* This is a shout-out to Reconzilla117’s “Star City’s Titanic Saviors”, in which Darhk escapes and releases King Ghidorah. Quite an enjoyable little story, for those who like Godzilla and Arrow both. The story is posted on FFN.


	61. Battle Royale, Part 2

Wonder Woman, Kryptonite gladius in one hand and her shield in the other, took a running leap and collided with one of the hovering Kryptonians, driving her gladius through his chest, piercing his heart. They both fell to the ground, Wonder Woman standing and pulling the gladius from his chest. She raised her shield and blocked the stream of heat vision; luckily, her shield and other armorings had been blessed by the gods in the ancient days of Themyscira, before their fall at the hands of Ares. This gave them an edge that most mortal weapons would not have, and that seemed to include protections from alien superpowers. Wonder Woman threw her shield like a discus, striking the Kryptonian who had been attacking her in the jaw and sending him falling to the ground. Wonder Woman caught her shield as it circled back while leaping forward, closing the distance between she and the Kryptonian. She swung her gladius straight and true, cleaving his head from his shoulders, a spray of blood splattering her armor and face. She ignored it and continued to move forward.

Wonder Woman returned her shield to her back and gripped the Lasso of Hestia, which she quickly sent out, catching a Kryptonian around the throat. She pulled hard, and he was brought tumbling forward. She drove the gladius through what would be the solar plexus on a human, and blood spurted out of his mouth, bubbling passed his lips as she ripped the blade from his body and shoved him aside, the lasso coiling in her hand. She caught another Kryptonian in the lasso’s grip, tying them tightly. “What is this?” the woman raged. “I am Faora, Wife of Zod! You cannot hold me, you filthy little human!”

“Your husband chose his battlefield and his tactics poorly,” Wonder Woman informed the woman before cutting off her head with the gladius. She unwound the lasso from around the body and noted that the remaining Kryptonians were fleeing at the sight of their commander’s death. That was fine with Wonder Woman. She did not wish to kill all of the remnants of Kal-El’s species if she could avoid it. She would not pursue them out of wanton bloodlust, but should they ever menace humanity again, she would face them. **_*1*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Ra’s al Ghul was contemplative as he watched the carnage wrought by the Daughter of Zeus, the only _known_ demi-goddess in the world. She had been trained in the ancient arts of war by masters, that much was clear, and she knew how to make use of all of her chosen weaponry. Were she ever to join the League of Assassins, Ra’s could easily see her becoming his Horseman, the second woman to fill that position (the first being Sara Lance). Of course, the likelihood of her joining the League of Assassins was non-existent. She had found her place in the Justice League, and with the absence of Oliver Queen, it was likely that Wonder Woman was directing the efforts of the Justice League in Metropolis. Now, were Queen or Wayne to become his Heir and then Ra’s, well, then perhaps _then_ this being would join the League of Assassins. But Ra’s was wary of the woman coming to know much about the League; a powerful, skilled warrior like her would not be able to countenance some of the League’s more archaic traditions and would make an example out of every man who tried to have his way with her.

Nyssa al Ghul felt hot, flushed as she watched the woman who was quickly becoming her new obsession show her artistry in combat. Nyssa had thought it before, and she was sure that she would think it many more times. The woman was a goddess in all but status, and more importantly, she would not _need_ Nyssa’s protection. It had been foolish to think Nyssa would have to protect such a perfect example of the female warrior. Wonder Woman was the key to changing her father’s mind, showing him that she could be his Heir. She knew he had his doubts; it had been those very same doubts that had driven Talia away, abandoning Nyssa to their father’s cruelty. She would earn the right to be called the Demon’s Head, and she would do it with Diana Prince at her side. Nyssa was certain of this.

Al Zil felt a certain part of his anatomy stiffen with arousal and then wilt with dread as he remembered who he was reacting to. Yeah, Wonder Woman was probably the hottest woman he had ever seen, and he had learned to appreciate muscular women in the League, but she was also one of _Oliver’s_ team. She believed in whatever his grand vision of the future was. She had moved from Paris to New York simply because he asked her to join the Justice League. He had probably flashed that famous playboy grin of his and convinced her the old-fashioned way, because there was no way a person changed that much. Oliver was still Oliver, and that meant he was probably cheating on Laurel in secret with the likes of Wonder Woman. Al Zil felt fury flash through him, and he once again vowed to end Oliver, though he would have to seek permission to do so for as long as he served Ra’s al Ghul. But once he had won his freedom, and he _would_ win his freedom, he would no longer be bound to serve the Demon’s Head and his designs regarding Oliver Queen and Bruce Wayne.

**_*DC*_ **

Damien Darhk quirked an eyebrow. “Well, that’s the sort of carnage you don’t see broadcast live every day,” he said. “I wonder just how much the news channels will be sued for airing such violent content?”

“They always make special exceptions for moments of great import, Damien,” Ruve said idly. “They certainly didn’t face any backlash from the Battles of Amnesty Bay and Gotham. The Battle of Metropolis will be no different.”

“True, true,” Darhk mused. “Still, perhaps we should stir things up against the heroes regarding their bloodlust? For the children, of course,” he added with an amused smile as he thought of organizing something like Mothers Against Horrible Heroes or something to make trouble for Queen and his Justice League. Speaking of, where _was_ Queen? Where was Laurel Lance? Where was Batman? All that had been shown was the empowered members of the League and a fifth empowered individual who saved people in a flash of goldenrod lightning.

**_*DC*_ **

Black Canary unleashed a Canary Cry at the nearest Kryptonians, who withered under her Cry long enough for her sister to dance into their midst, artfully stabbing them through the heart and other vital organs with her Sais.

Nearby, Batman had armed himself with a pair of Kryptonite knuckles and was delivering savage beatings to every Kryptonian who came within range of him. The D.E.O. agents were giving him a wide berth, not wanting to be mistaken for an enemy and receive a beating of their own. Nightwing was using a Kryptonite bo staff, same as Black Canary, striking at the nearest Kryptonians, hitting them in the stomach, behind the knees, on the back of the head, and so on.

Black Canary dodged an attack by a Kryptonian using Heat Vision and pitched her Canary Cry to shatter bone, sending it at the Kryptonian. It didn’t shatter his bones, but he did wither under it, his ears bleeding and blood beginning to pour out of his nose as well. Then White Canary stabbed him in the jugular and then pulled her Sai out, splattering her white uniform with his blood in the process as he lurched forward and landed on his front in the middle of the atrium of the D.E.O.’s top level, body convulsing as he exsanguinated. “They just keep coming,” Black Canary said tiredly to her sister.

“Because they know this is where everything’s being coordinated from,” White Canary replied as she stabbed another Kryptonian in the heart.

“ ** _Less talking, more fighting,_** ” Batman snarled as he dived between the Canary sisters and began pummeling on a Kryptonian who had been trying to do a sneak attack on them.

Unphased, White Canary snarked, “We’re women, we can do both!” Batman said nothing, continuing to pummel the Kryptonian into submission. “That guy’s temper issues put Ollie’s too shame,” she added as she and Black Canary turned to face the next wave of Kryptonians.

“Yeah, the old gargoyle isn’t really one for therapy,” Nightwing quipped as he danced by to continue covering his mentor.

“I used to think that way, then I met the Huntsman and realized there are just some people who need a good pummeling,” Black Canary remarked. “It can be remarkably therapeutic to beat the hell out of bad guys.” **_*2*_**

“Damn, four months really changed you, sis,” White Canary said.

“For the better?” Black Canary asked.

“For the better,” White Canary confirmed, and the Canary sisters launched their next attack on the new Kryptonians.

**_*DC*_ **

Aquaman thrust the Trident of Poseidon forward, skewering the nearest Kryptonian with it in the chest, piercing both lungs and the diaphragm, assuming they had similar physiology to humans and weren’t just human-looking in appearance. Aquaman pulled the Trident from the Kryptonian, held it up, and channeled an energy blast through it, which struck the mortally wounded Kryptonian in the face and catapulted him back. The sky remained pitch black, thunder constantly sounding as lightning flashed. Aquaman focused the Trident’s ability to control the storm and began directing the storm to attack his foes. Lightning soared down from the thick black clouds and struck Kryptonian after Kryptonian, leaving them burned and moaning.

Aquaman moved forward, stabbing downward as he came to each Kryptonian and ending their misery. He mused over whether normal lightning would hurt Kryptonians or if this was because the lightning had been summoned by the magic of the trident. If it was the latter, than magic would be another thing Kryptonians were weak to, something that Superman would have to watch out for, _especially_ if Damien Darhk got ahold of that idol that he needed to complete his plans for the world. Aquaman made a mental note to talk to Superman about that issue _after_ the battle was over and refocused his attentions. Rain had fallen heavily now, and the streets were flooding, which was perfect, because it gave him another weapon to use against the Kryptonians. He focused his will through the Trident again, and the water around him rose up, forming a fist which gripped the nearest Kryptonian long enough for Aquaman to drive the Trident through his heart and lungs. “Your general believed he was limiting me by choosing a land-locked city,” he said grimly to the dying man. “You have paid for his folly. May whatever gods you worship welcome you home.”

Aquaman once more focused his will, and the water rose up beneath him, forming a wave that he rode through the streets at the same level as the Kryptonians. He struck again and again with the Trident, guiding the lightning to coincide with the strike of the Trident against the Kryptonians, channeling the full force of the storm into each lightning strike, leaving the Kryptonians electrocuted and very much dead. Finally, the wave died down and Aquaman landed on the street, turning to look back at the carnage he had wrought. It was a grim business, war, but the Kryptonians had brought it on themselves.

Aquaman turned and set off down the street to continue his hunt for more Kryptonians who were seeking to harm others.

**_*DC*_ **

A dreadful silence fell in the intelligence room of Nanda Parbat as the assassins and their leadership absorbed what they had just witnessed from Aquaman, the King of Atlantis.

Ra’s al Ghul had made it a point to dig up everything on both Atlantis and the old gods of Olympus that the League had squirreled away after the revelations that Atlantis still existed and that the gods of Olympus had left a parting gift in the form of Diana Prince. Reading through the annals of those histories, he had uncovered that Atlantis might well have been the last resting place of the Trident of Poseidon, the weapon of the Sea-God himself. The Trident possessed all of the powers that the Trident now wielded by the King of Atlantis did, and Ra’s had the horrible sinking feeling that Aquaman did indeed possess the weapon of the God of the Sea. If he did, then the entire balance of the world had shifted again. Ra’s maintained a calm air so that his assassins would not sense weakness, but he would admit to being perturbed by this turn of events. The only thing that salved this moment was that his old friend would be similarly disturbed and when Damien was disturbed, he became sloppy. This could prove advantageous if they caught wind of what Damien was up to in time.

Nyssa al Ghul felt true, utter, and complete terror as she witnessed the King of Atlantis dispatch an entire unit of the most powerful beings on the planet with a _Trident_ , albeit one that was clearly imbued with great magical powers. A small part of Nyssa acknowledged that this meant the Kryptonians were weak to magic, but mostly she realized just how _outmatched_ the League of Assassins truly was at the moment. The Justice League represented not just a new power, but an age of new gods and goddesses, beings whose great power would see their influence spread across the entirety of the Earth, and there was not a damn thing that the League of Assassins could do because the Justice League was simply _too powerful_. They were almost literally the modern-day gods of Olympus, one of them even being an actual _Daughter of Olympus!_

Al Zil stared at the screen, feeling an odd sense of light-headedness. His vision began to blur, and a moment later, he had crumpled to the ground, and he wasn’t the only one. Ra’s al Ghul’s lips thinned as he stared at each of those who had lost consciousness from the sheer shock of seeing the power of the Trident of Poseidon at work. Each would have to be punished and reminded that an assassin did not lose their edge, no matter how shocking events in the world became. **_*3*_**

**_*DC*_ **

A dreadful silence was also filling the conference room in the H.I.V.E. base where the inner circle was meeting.

Phaedra Nixon was trying to figure out if now was the time to begin updating his will, because he privately thought that with power like _that_ at their disposal, the Justice League was going to steam-roll over any and all who opposed them or whom they sought to end the influence of, and Phaedra was certain that H.I.V.E. would be on that list, assuming it wasn’t already. How could they fight such an all-consuming and terrifying power as what had just been unleashed on the Kryptonian army in Metropolis?

Mina Fayad was terrified for her life twice over. If she left the service of H.I.V.E., then Damien Darhk would hunt her down and make an example out of her. But if she stayed, she risked having that power turned on her, risked becoming the target of the wrath of what was swiftly becoming the most powerful fighting force on the planet. There was nothing in H.I.V.E.’s arsenal that could withstand a weapon of that level of power. Not even Damien’s hunt for the Kushu idol was enough to challenge the Justice League, and she wondered if he realized that.

Milo Armitage was trying to figure out how he could turn state’s evidence against H.I.V.E., because that was the only way he saw out of this alive. With Damien Darhk on one side and the Justice League and their massive power on the other, it was inevitable that those who were caught in the middle would become the cannon fodder, the sacrificial lambs, and Milo was neither of those things. He was a survivor, and he would get the hell out of his problematic situation even if he had to betray Damien, unless the leader of H.I.V.E. had an ace up his sleeve that he hadn’t told anyone as of yet.

Ruve Darhk didn’t know how to feel. She _believed_ in Damien’s vision for giving humanity a reset, but the world had changed so drastically in the past few months, ever since the defeat of Malcolm Merlyn at the hands of Oliver Queen. Unfortunately, killing Queen would not erase all that had happened, and, as evidenced by their current success, the Justice League did not _require_ Oliver Queen to be directing them. Their agents in Starling had mentioned a blacked-out ambulance arriving at Queen’s building with a convoy. It was likely Zod had wanted to remove the ‘enemy commander’, only to find the Justice League were quite able to fight their own battles. Ruve knew one thing, though; these heroes were a threat to everything they had planned, the future they promised to their daughter. That could not be countenanced. Something needed to be done to remove the heroes from power before they became too powerful, if that was even possible anymore.

Damien Darhk had taken everything that had been happening the past four months in stride. Superman being an alien from another planet who had been here for thirty-three years? He could handle that. An Atlantean joining forces with the Justice League and Queen’s girlfriend randomly developing superpowers akin to those wielded by the Justice Society of America decades ago? Alright, that was new, but manageable. Atlantis remaining a superpower beneath the surface of the ocean, and the army of Atlantis being at the beck and call of the Justice League should they require it since one of their founding members was the _King of Atlantis_? Troubling, but still manageable. Diana Prince turning out to be a demi-goddess, the daughter of Zeus himself? Even more troubling, and yes, things were beginning to become unbearable. But now? Now the King of Atlantis had what could only be the Trident of Poseidon, the personal weapon of the Sea-God himself, and was wielding it expertly. He had summoned the storm that now raged over Metropolis and was directing it to attack the Kryptonians menacing it.

This was just a step too far. Damien sighed. “Well, _fuck_ ,” he said. “This is certainly a wrinkle. But I do hope everyone around this table understands the potential consequences of betrayal. H.I.V.E. is not without resources, resources we can use to develop counters to the Justice League. Yes, I know, he’s wielding a god-like weapon. I…” Damien trailed off.

“Oh, hell, I admit, this is more than a wrinkle,” he said after a moment. “Dial back our operations in the United States, right away. No need to give the Justice League any reason to go after us when they’re running high from defeating the Kryptonians. The only U.S. operation I want running in the next twenty-four hours is the operation to free the idol from A.R.G.U.S. custody. They’ve moved it to a special storage facility in the U.S., and that will take some extra time to break into.” Damien waved a dismissive hand and shut off the television. He couldn’t watch anymore. If he did, he would probably need to spend the next five hours torturing people. As it was, he would need a good three hours of excessively bloody torture to even _begin_ making himself presentable for his daughter. **_*4*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Superman soared through the air over Metropolis, hunting for the man that was responsible for all of this pain and misery and suffering: General Dru-Zod. Searching for a warrior dressed in black amidst a black sky and a darkening city was not easy, but Superman finally spotted him, hovering over the Daily Planet. Of course it was there; he would want to make a statement by going after the place of business that Superman worked at in his civilian identity and which had been so praising of both Superman and the Justice League. Superman glided forward until he was floating ten feet from Zod. “Your army is being routed, Zod,” he said. “Surrender while you still can, and I promise I will send you back to the Phantom Zone without incident.”

Zod’s expression was dark as he took in Superman’s calm mask. “Your little human mate has killed Non,” he said. “The swordswoman has killed my wife. Dozens of my men have died in this assault. I will not let their deaths be in vain. I will break you, and then I will find each member of the Justice League and break them.” Zod fired a blast of Heat Vision at Superman who dodged out of the way before shooting passed Zod, turning in midair and striking Zod in the small of the back with a full-powered Heat Vision blast. Zod grunted in pain as he was thrown forward, the back of his uniform burned away and the skin beneath singed, then turned and launched an aerial kick, aiming at Superman’s gut. Superman ducked beneath the attack before coming up with an aerial uppercut, sending Zod spinning head over heels away from the Daily Planet.

Zod recovered from the attack and launched his next attack, but this time it wasn’t aimed at Superman. Instead, his Heat Vision struck the bottom of the globe atop the Daily Planet building, which splintered and broke, falling down, rolling, and finally plummeting for the street below. Superman shot downward instantly, getting under the globe and catching it, slowing it, and finally coming to a stop just above the street. Cars had been left abandoned as the people fled from Zod’s sight, so Superman placed the globe on top of a pair of cars. The next instant, he was slammed backward into the hood of a car as Zod delivered a diagonal kick to his chest as he flew down. Zod landed in a crouch before him and delivered a brutal right hook to Superman’s jaw, sending the Man of Steel spinning.

Zod pressed his advantage when Superman’s back was turned, delivering a kick to the small of his back and sending him to his knees. “This is where you belong, son of Jor-El, on your knees before me,” Zod gloated. “This is where every last one of these humans you love so much will be, including the woman that you love. You will fail, Kal-El. You lack the conviction to do all that is necessary, and that will see them all _burn_ , with the New Krypton rising from the ashes of this backwater world to become the dominant power in the universe, and this new era of our people will be led by the House of _Zod!_ ” Zod reared back to deliver a forward kick, but Superman caught his foot in a steel grip as he stood. Superman twisted hard, using his greater strength and power, and Zod cried out in agony as his ankle broke.

“No, Zod,” Superman said, launching an aerial uppercut and sending Zod into the air again, following him and using Freeze Breath to encase the Kryptonian warlord in a thin layer of ice, “I _don’t_ lack the conviction you speak of. You think you know me because you’ve watched me deal with _human_ criminals or other alien species that are still vulnerable to the gifts granted to out kind under yellow sun.” Superman delivered a series of quick blows, circling Zod and not staying in one place for longer than it took to land a punch, causing the Kryptonian warlord to snarl in outrage. “I hate the idea of killing, yes; but you and the rest of our kind coming to this world with the intent to conquer, to enslave, to commit genocide has forced me to evaluate what I am willing to do, how far I am willing to go.” Superman struck Zod in the chest with Heat Vision at full blast, burning away the man’s uniform and leaving him bare-chested and the Heat Vision equivalent of sun-burnt. “Five months ago, a man named Malcolm Merlyn told Oliver Queen he lacked the conviction to do all that was necessary. He died that night.” Superman grabbed Zod’s shoulder and delivered three quick left hooks to the older Kryptonian’s jaw, sending him crashing to the ground.

“You… don’t… have… the same… conviction… as Oliver Queen,” Zod wheezed out, gripping the edge of a car before picking it up and throwing it at Superman, who floated up and over it and came down with a downward strike with his right fist, sending Zod to his knees.

Superman grabbed Zod from behind, placing his hands in a position he had asked Oliver to show him once during the weeks since the Battle of Gotham and began applying pressure. “I don’t kill as much as Oliver or even the rest of the Justice League,” Superman agreed, “but I realize now that there are some threats that are too great to let walk around. I offered you a chance to serve out your sentence in the Phantom Zone. You chose this, Zod. Remember that, wherever our kind end up.” Superman grunted as he put all of his strength behind the move Oliver had shown him, and with a final, resounding _crack_ , broke Zod’s neck and let him fall to the ground. Superman stood, chest heaving, and tapped his comms. “This is Superman,” he said. “Zod is dead.” **_*5*_**

**_*DC*_ **

The Situation Room in the White House erupted into cheers at the announcement from the Man of Steel, whose comms, along with the rest of the Justice League’s, had been filtered into the feeds that were allowing the President and his top military officials to witness the Battle of Metropolis. President Allan Trumbull sat in the midst of this, a smile on his face as he acknowledged that yes, choosing to form the Justice League would become the defining moment of his career as President of the United States. Everything else that had happened had done so _because_ of the Justice League and the events surrounding them. And now, the threat that had first shown itself four months ago, when he had directed Oliver Queen and Superman to investigate incoming spacecraft that would crash in the Mojave Desert, had been defeated by the Justice League. Reports from the rest of them had indicated the Kryptonians had fled the field, leaving only General Zod, and now Zod was dead.

The Justice League had more than proven itself and it’s worth to the United States, to the _world_. It was time for them to recognize that by giving the Justice League an official headquarters to operate out of. A plot of land would be found in D.C. for them to build it on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* I felt that this outcome would be very Diana; spread fear among the soldiers, kill the commander, and thus drive the enemy away, especially in light of her comment to Faora about Zod’s chosen battlefield and tactics being poor.
> 
> *2* Looking back at the beginning of “Rise”, it’s interesting to consider the journey that Laurel has been on throughout this series so far to become the woman who says this, who is much more like her comics counterpart as I understand it, someone who talks with her fists more than anything.
> 
> *3* So, this was a fun reaction section to write. Ra’s is trying to calculate every possible bit of fallout from this as well as acknowledging that the League doesn’t have the ability to take down someone like Diana, Nyssa is all hot and bothered and Tommy… has fainted because the sheer magnitude of everything surrounding Oliver is now just too much for the poor bastard to handle.
> 
> *4* I wanted to write an ‘oh fuck’ moment for Damien after he realized just how much power is contained in the Justice League, but I also wanted him to still be Damien. So, I hope that this particular reaction was fitting in that capacity.
> 
> *5* Okay, so I debated on what to do with Zod. I did consider having Clark send him back to the Phantom Zone. But since even E-38 Clark killed Zod, I decided to do that. I’m sorry that this might not be the way people would hope, but this is the way it’s happening and I’m not changing it. So, either keep reading or click the back button. I’m not gonna argue the point with anyone. You can either accept what’s happened or you can’t, and that’s on you, not me. People know the kind of stories I write.


	62. Trust

_Oliver Queen sat beside Laurel Lance in the center of the main table, looking out at the crowd of guests, all of whom were important to them and all of whom were staying with them at the Queen Mansion since, as Oliver had put it, what was the point of having a massive mansion if you couldn’t put up your guests instead of forcing them to stay at a hotel. Oliver was dressed in one of his finer suits while Laurel was in a slim black dress, black nylons, and flats (she simply didn’t do high heels anymore since she couldn’t fight as well in them). As should be expected from a Queen family function, the rehearsal dinner was more of a formal event than other rehearsal dinners might’ve been, but Oliver and Laurel were more than used to formality as a matter of conduct thanks to their status as the two most prominent public heroes. Arthur split his time between the surface and Atlantis, and Diana likewise split her time between Man’s World and Themyscira, working on improving relations between the Amazons and the rest of the world. While Sara was a public hero since, like Laurel, she didn’t hide her face, she wasn’t as prominent as Oliver and Laurel had been because, when it came right down to it, she hadn’t stood against an army from the sea by the side of her lover the way Oliver and Laurel had._

_Robert Queen stood and tapped a glass with a spoon, gaining the attention of the audience. “Thank you all for coming,” Robert said. “I know you all have many responsibilities, and it humbles me that my son has such good friends that they will put those responsibilities aside to help him celebrate what is often one of the most momentous occasions in any person’s life, the day that they marry the person they love most in the world. It speaks to the kind of man he is, a far better man than I ever was. It’s fitting, then that he should marry a woman as compassionate and selfless as he has been in his endeavors. I have watched these two grow closer over their childhood and teen years, and I wasn’t surprised in the least when they finally acted on their feelings. The two of them are perfect for one another, and they bolster each other even while they care for the world at large. It is not a question of whether they’re compatible with one another. No, it’s a question of why this didn’t happen sooner.” Robert smiled to the chuckles that rang around the room at that. “Join me now, in a toast to Oliver and Laurel.” He raised his glass in the direction of his son and his bride-to-be._

_“Oliver and Laurel,” echoed around the room. Laurel’s smile was in the megawatt range and there were tears shining in her green eyes. Her and Oliver’s right and left hands, respectively, were clasped in the middle of the table, and Oliver was likewise smiling with his eyes shining._

_Quentin was the next to stand up. “As a father of a beautiful young woman, you’re always careful when a young man comes sniffing around, because you don’t want your little girl hurting from a broken heart even though you know that’s inevitable,” Quentin said. “It became obvious to me as Laurel and Sara grew older that Laurel was going to end up with one of her best friends. There was a closeness to those three that couldn’t be denied. Once I accepted this, it was easy to guess which one it would be. There was only one she instantly acclimated to, one she sought out for comfort when she was hurting or depressed, and he would respond by taking her in his arms and they would spend an entire night just holding each other. He never tried anything funny when I was around, even seemed content to just be there with her. They had their problems as they got older, but then Oliver came back from a dark and ugly future and made sweeping changes, and among those was a change he told me he considered his most selfish, but which I’m grateful for: he made it a point to be the kind of boyfriend that my little girl deserves, and then he went further and proposed to her when he felt the time was right. So now, on the eve of these two finally doing what they’ve been ready to do for years, all I gotta say is that my daughter and Oliver are soulmates. It’s obvious in the way they orbit one another, in the way they are always touching, always watching, always worrying about one another. And I will be very proud tomorrow night when I can call Oliver my son-in-law.”_

_Clapping followed Quentin sitting down and continued until Tommy Merlyn stood up. “This is a day that I never thought I’d see, in part because I didn’t think that I would_ be _here to see it happen,” Tommy said. “Oliver Queen has been my best friend since we were toddlers, and Laurel Lance has been one of my closest friends since we were eight years old. Oliver was the one to befriend Laurel that first day at Berlanti Prep, and she snared his attention by being completely unimpressed with his boast that he was the son of Robert Queen, one of the city’s biggest employers. No one had ever treated Oliver normally before, and he didn’t know quite what to do with it.” Chuckles could be heard as Oliver smiled and shot a wink at Laurel, who grinned happily back at the memories of their first meeting._

_“As time went on it quickly became obvious there were two levels of friendship happening,” Tommy continued. “There was Oliver, Laurel, and me, and then there was Oliver and Laurel against the world that said the daughter of a cop and the son of a billionaire couldn’t be friends and eventually lovers. I have watched Ollie and Laurel fight the odds that were stacked against them. I owe them my life, because it was Oliver, with Laurel standing by his side, who fought Ra’s al Ghul and defeated him, replacing him with his daughter and gaining a boon from her, only to use that boon to give me my freedom. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for these two. I wouldn’t have a life of my own again, or be engaged to my own fiancé. Oliver and Laurel are heroes to the world, but they’re also my personal heroes. I know how deep the love between them is. That love is what gave them the strength to stand together at Amnesty Bay, against overwhelming odds, and not falter, and it is that love that brings us all here today.” Tommy turned and raised his glass in Oliver and Laurel’s direction. “Oliver and Laurel.”_

_“Oliver and Laurel,” the crowd intoned again._

_Oliver and Laurel, still smiling, exchanged glances again, and Oliver again felt a sense of contentment as he saw that meaning megawatt smile that his fiancé was capable of giving off. Being here, listening to these speeches, seeing Laurel’s beaming gaze, it was easier to see how his thoughts earlier in the day had to have been pre-wedding jitters. How could this world be anything but real? It was perfect, he thought. Everything was perfect. How could he have thought this was ever a dream? ***1***_

**_*DC*_ **

The D.E.O. and emergency services were handling the aftermath of the Battle of Metropolis, Superman and Green Lantern lending a hand where they could while The Flash, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman returned to the D.E.O. HQ so that Wonder Woman could deliver her report to the President as acting leader of the Justice League. Laurel Lance, meanwhile, had returned to the medical wing to be with Oliver while Lex Luthor and an escort from the D.E.O. went to LuthorCorp and fetched the technology that Lex intended to modify to send someone into the dream world Oliver was trapped in. As far as Laurel was concerned, that someone was going to be her. She wouldn’t leave something like this to chance; she just _knew_ it had to be her.

Laurel sat by Oliver’s bedside, gripping his right hand between both of hers. “We did it, Ollie,” she said quietly. “We fought Zod and we beat him. According to Director Lane’s estimates, we depleted the Kryptonian forces on Earth by at least half, and the remainder fled once Superman killed Zod. They’re scattered, leaderless, and Director Lane thinks it’ll make them easier to track down.” Laurel squeezed her boyfriend’s hand gently. “What you hoped for, what you wanted us to be… it happened. You would be proud of us, I think. I know a part of you will be disappointed that you missed the battle, but you have your own battle to fight, Ollie, and it’s not over yet. But it’s going to be, very soon. I promise, Ollie. I promise, I’m not gonna rest until I have you back in my arms.”

“I’m glad you two are so committed to one another,” Thea Queen said quietly as she slipped into a seat beside Laurel. “I’m glad you can be there for him, Laurel. I try to be, but there are things I can’t do for him that you can. I’m glad he’s going to have you to get through all of this.” Thea worried her lower lip. “But… what if you go into the dream world and become trapped with him? What if I lose you both?”

“You won’t, Speedy,” Laurel said, reluctantly pulling one hand away from holding Oliver’s to thread it through the younger woman’s hand. “Ollie is going to be back with us by morning. I promise you. The people are going to expecting the Justice League to speak to the press, and as good as Diana is at handling things, the people will be expecting to hear from Ollie. We have to get him back by morning so he can do that.”

“Pretty crazy forty-eight hours you two are having,” Thea said. “Yesterday, you were fighting your way through Slabside. Today, you were fighting for your life against a Kryptonian army while Ollie was left defenseless, trapped by a fucking plant in a dream world. I keep imagining what would’ve happened if the Kryptonians had made it up here. He would’ve been defenseless, Laurel. They could’ve killed him, and he never would’ve known he was in any danger.”

“You can’t think like that, Thea,” Laurel said, scooting her chair closer to Thea and wrapping her arm around the girl’s shoulder. “It didn’t happen. The Kryptonians never made it up here. They never even knew that the man who had made sure we were all prepared to fight them was helpless. They were also arrogant, believing in their superiority. If they had used half their brains, they would’ve realized that they could have floated outside of the building and obliterated it with Heat Vision. But they _wanted_ to conquer us through sheer physical strength and thought that even if we had Kryptonite that their training would see them conquer us because how could weak, backwards humans have superior fighting skills to them? They were arrogant and they paid the price for it.”

Thea and Laurel sat in silence for the next few minutes, just thinking of what could have been and finding comfort in Laurel’s words that it hadn’t happened. “Do you think it’s going to hurt him, when that thing comes off?” Thea asked.

“I don’t know, Speedy,” Laurel said quietly. “I’m more worried about what comes after. Oliver, right now, is in a perfect world that matches the deepest, most desperate desires of his heart. He’s going to have to _abandon_ that world, abandon everything he desires, to return to a dark and brutal world where he played a minimal role in ending the greatest threat to mankind. I’m scared how he’s going to react to that. So much of his identity is wrapped up in being a protector that learning he wasn’t there to protect the people when they needed him the most is going to have serious repercussions. He’s going to need all of us for a while, Speedy, to know that he’s not alone, that he hasn’t been made obsolete. He needs to know the world still needs him, that we still need him, because otherwise… otherwise he might do something he could regret.”

“You mean… he might hurt himself?” Thea asked in a small voice.

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Laurel admitted. “Your brother is so strong, Thea, but even the strongest people have a breaking point. I’m worried this could be his.” **_*2*_**

The two women sat in silence until Lex Luthor and a team of D.E.O. agents entered, wheeling machinery into the room. “I made the modifications before we came back,” Lex announced as the Justice League filed into the room behind the D.E.O., Barry, Diana, and Sara looking the most anxious to know what was going on. Arthur, Batman, and Green Lantern were less obvious in their concern. “Now the only question is, who’s going in to get our friend here to wake up?”

“I am,” Laurel said before anyone else could speak. “One key aspect of any dream world for Ollie is going to be me. You send in someone else and dream me can be used to convince him to stay in the dream world because he trusts me more than anyone else. But if I go in, I can reach him, and I’m guessing whoever goes in will replace the version of them in the dream world. Is that right, Mr. Luthor?” she asked.

“That is what the Kryptonian scientists theorized could be done, yes,” Lex replied, “but there is a fifty-fifty chance that you instead manifest as a separate version from your dream world self, in which case Oliver will have to choose between believing the version he believes is you, and the version that is telling him everything he is seeing is a lie and that he has to come back to a world where what he’s seeing hasn’t happened and may never happen. There’s also the risk that the dream world ensnares you, as well.”

“I’m willing to take that risk,” Laurel said. “Ollie would do the same for me if I were trapped. I can’t leave him like this. I would rather us be trapped together than forever separated by a _plant_.” Diana smiled and nodded to herself, reminded of just how much Oliver and Laurel meant to one another.

“Alright, then,” Lex said. “Let’s get you on a bed, because you’re going to want to be laying down for this.”

The next few minutes were spent arranging everything, but soon enough, Laurel was laying back on a bed beside Oliver, wires connected devices to monitor her brainwaves and match them to the same frequency as Oliver’s leading to her forehead. Laurel gave Thea and Sara a reassuring smile. “Alright, Laurel, we’re going to begin matching your brainwaves with Oliver’s,” Lex said. “You are going to fall asleep rapidly, don’t try to fight it. Do you understand?”

“I understand,” Laurel said. “Do what you have to do, Mr. Luthor.”

“It’s Lex,” Lex said as he began typing in commands. “Alright, beginning sync in four, three, two, one…” He typed in another command. Laurel’s eyelids began to droop almost instantly and she had to force herself to relax, to accept the desire for sleep, though it was easy considering she was tired anyways. She closed her green eyes and felt a sense of calm wash over her. Within five minutes, her breathing evened out and she showed no signs of being awake. “Now, we wait,” Lex said quietly, keeping an eye on the monitor, which showed Laurel’s brainwaves were now matching Oliver’s perfectly.

**_*DC*_ **

_Laurel’s eyes opened, and she pushed herself into a sitting position. She looked around; she was in a guest room at the Queen Mansion, she recognized the décor from when she and Ollie had had sleepovers when they were children. This must be the dream world that Oliver had been trapped in by the Black Mercy. Laurel wondered why they were at the Queen Mansion, and why she hadn’t woken up beside him since she was sure any perfect world for him would include their relationship being solid and unbroken. Laurel slipped out of bed, aware that she was dressed in only a black nighty. She grabbed the bathrobe hanging on the bed and tied it around her. She slipped out of the room, orienting herself; she was in the guest wing of the Queen Mansion, and if this were a perfect world, Oliver would be in his room because he wouldn’t be able to accept himself as master of the mansion and thus be in his parents’ bedroom._

_Laurel made her way through the silent hallways of the mansion, feeling the soft carpet beneath her bare feet as she made her way to the family wing of the mansion. Soon enough, she found herself at the door to Oliver’s bedroom and slowly opened the door, slipping inside the way she had so many times when they were younger and running around behind Robert and Moira’s back. Laurel would never admit it if confronted in the real world, but she really felt like she was back when they were at their happiest, before the_ Queen’s Gambit _, before Oliver had cheated on her with Sara. Laurel made her way to Oliver’s bed, smiling as she saw him sleeping in the center of the bed. She sat on the edge of the bed and started shaking him. “Ollie, wake up,” she said quietly._

_Oliver groaned slightly, his blue eyes opening and staring around confusedly before centering on her. “Laurel?” he asked. “What are you doing here? I mean, I don’t mind, but I thought we were observing traditions this one time for the sake of normalcy.”_

_“Ollie, I don’t know what you’ve been seeing, but this world, it’s not what you think,” Laurel said._

_“You’re having pre-wedding jitters,” Oliver said with a tone of realization. “I know the feeling. I was having them earlier, but I got over them. This is what we’ve been waiting for since I proposed, Laurel. This is what_ you’ve _been waiting ten years for. If you don’t want to observe tradition and want to stay here with me tonight, I’m not going to argue. I’ve been missing my beautiful bed partner, even though I know in a few hours I’ll never be missing you again.”_

_Laurel swallowed. They were getting married; in Oliver’s perfect world, they were getting married, just like the Dominators had used to trap him. Oh, how she hated to be the one to break his happiness, to tear his heart to pieces, but she wanted him back for real, not in this dream world. “Ollie, you don’t understand,” Laurel said softly, scooting further onto the bed and taking Oliver’s right hand as he used his left to prop up his head to get a better look at her. “This isn’t the real world. You were attacked at the loft by an alien plant called a Black Mercy. It works like the Dominators’ technology, trapping you in a dream world while it feeds off of your psychic energy. I love that your perfect world includes us getting married, but I’d rather have you back in the real world, so you can propose to me one day.”_

_“But… I did propose,” Oliver whispered. “I remember it. You should to. You told me that you’d never forget it.”_

_“And when it actually happens, I’m sure that I never will,” Laurel said, cupping his chin and tilting his head so their eyes met. “Don’t tell me anything about it, Ollie. I want to be amazed the first time I hear it. Don’t spoil it, for either of us. Now, they said you might’ve seen something that represents the real world to you, something that would stand out to serve as an exit.”_

_“Merlyn Global,” Oliver whispered. “When I was getting my tux, I saw Merlyn Global. But I thought I was imagining things.”_

_“No, Ollie,” Laurel said. “It represents the real world for you. I know that whatever’s been going on here has been very real to you, but it’s all drawn from your greatest desires. None of it is real. My love for you is real, but we haven’t gotten engaged yet. I love that you have plans for a proposal and I can’t wait for you to do it. But I want it to happen naturally. Please, Ollie, come with me. Let’s go to Merlyn Global, get back to the real world.”_

_“What’s happening there?” Oliver asked in a small voice. “You said I was attacked at the loft? Was it… Was it Zod?”_

_“Yes,” Laurel said softly. “He wanted you incapacitated. He attacked Metropolis. But we beat him. Thanks to your Kryptonite arsenal, we were able to defeat him and his army. Superman killed him. Zod’s gone, Ollie.”_

_“But… but it wasn’t supposed to be that way,” Oliver whispered. “We were supposed to track him down wherever he’s been hiding, away from all of the cities so there would be no civilian casualties like in Gotham. Metropolis… millions of people live in Metropolis. How-How many did they kill?”_

_“We don’t know, reports are still coming in,” Laurel said. “Ollie, we can worry about this later. Eventually, the Black Mercy is going to realize something’s wrong. We have to go.” She picked up his right hand in both of hers and stood. “Come with me,_ trust me _, Ollie,” Laurel said softly._

_“I trust you,” Oliver said, climbing out of bed. “How are we supposed to get to Merlyn Global?”_

_“This is your dream world, it plays by your rules,” Laurel said. “You’re in charge here, Ollie.” Oliver nodded slowly, and a moment later, the two of them were both in plain clothes and standing in front of Merlyn Global’s office building. The name of the defunct business kept flickering in and out of existence up above them. “Alright, let’s get in there and find the exit,” Laurel said._

_“It’ll be in the C.E.O.’s office,” Oliver said with confidence. “Merlyn’s hideaway. It has to be.”_

_“Then let’s go,” Laurel said softly. The two made their way into the building. As they made their way through the building, they had to duck out of sight as they spotted security guards._

_“What are security guards doing here if this is my dream world?” Oliver asked._

_“Maybe a security measure by the Black Mercy to keep you from reaching the exit,” Laurel said. “It must have felt something when you shifted us here.”_

_“Maybe we should’ve driven,” Oliver said quietly._

_“Traveling in dreams is always slow and painful,” Laurel said. “At least, that’s been my experience. Your body feels sluggish in your dreams. No, coming here the way that we did was the best way. Come on, we’re almost there.”_

_The two of them reached the C.E.O.’s office; the ‘panic room’ where Merlyn’s lair was located was open and a swirling pool of light was present there. But there was someone between them and the exit, someone dressed in the uniform of the League of Assassins with the cowl pulled down. Tommy Merlyn._

_“So,_ you’re _the one whose been interfering in my fun,” Tommy said, his eyes fixating on Laurel. “I don’t know how you intruded here, but this is my realm. I suppose I’ll just have to erase you and reset this little world for Mr. Queen. I don’t give up my food without a fight.” Tommy threw a ninja star at Laurel, who stiffened in shock, her mind wildly wondering what would happen to her in the real world if she died here in the dream world. But Oliver’s reflexes were quick, and he snagged the ninja star out of the air._

_“The Black Mercy, I presume,” Oliver said grimly. “I was beginning to wonder if this was some horrible dream brought on by pre-wedding jitters.”_

_“It is,” Tommy said. “When you wake up, it’ll be morning, and you’ll be only hours away from speaking your vows. Isn’t that what you want, Oliver? To speak your vows, confess your love for her?” Tommy’s eyes flickered to Laurel. “And what about you, Laurel? Isn’t that what you want, too? To have him all to yourself? You can both have what you want here and now. All you have to do is turn around and go back to the Queen Mansion. Go back to bed, and when you wake up in the morning, this will be a nightmare that you suffered.”_

_“We would rather have this in the real world,” Laurel said firmly. “I want to be able to spend the rest of my life with Ollie, not the two months that it’ll take you to completely drain him of his psychic energy.” Laurel looked at Ollie. “Go. Once you leave this place, the dream world ends. But someone needs to distract this bastard while you escape. You and Sara taught me well. I can do this, Ollie.”_

_“Laurel…” Oliver said painfully._

_“Go,” Laurel said softly, then raced at Tommy, who pulled his cowl into place and blocked Laurel’s first punch. Laurel did her best to pull Tommy away from the portal so Oliver could escape and wake up from this hell, but Oliver was frozen, watching the woman he loved fighting their best friend._

_Tommy was brutal, as any member of the League would be, delivering a couple of strikes to Laurel’s ribs, which caused Oliver to flinch. Tommy tilted his head to the side, looking at Oliver as Laurel wheezed. “ **That reminds you of the future, doesn’t it, Oliver?** ” Tommy asked. “ **Seeing her hit in the ribs… it reminds you of when Darhk used your arrow to carve up her pretty lung. It was your fault, you know… you were the one who let her go in the field. You were the one who accepted her as Black Canary. Her death is your fault. Isn’t it better to remain here, where you can live a lifetime by her side, where all the threats to her are gone? Or would you rather I crush her throat?** ” Tommy’s hand snapped out and grabbed Laurel by the throat, squeezing hard. Laurel’s hands shot to her throat. “ **Step towards the portal, Queen, and she dies. I doubt she’ll just wake up in the world outside if she dies here. Do you really want her death on your conscience?** ” ***3***_

_“GO, Ollie,” Laurel rasped. “I’m here because of science, not because that thing’s trapped me like it has you. It doesn’t control my destiny. And it was never your fault, remember? I chose this life in both the last timeline and this one, and no amount of training could have prepared me for Darhk’s magic. Trust me now, Ollie… he can’t hurt me. Now, go!”_

_Oliver hesitated for a moment, then turned and ran through the portal, hearing Tommy’s howl of rage behind him as the world around he and Laurel collapsed with Oliver’s disappearance._

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver’s eyes snapped open as the Black Mercy detached itself from him, writhing and tentacles seeking a new host. Oliver threw it off of him, limbs shaking, and leaned over the side of the bed, retching and vomiting. At the same time, Green Lantern caught the Black Mercy in a cage and lifted it away. “Someone either contain this thing or I turn it into a fucking salad,” Green Lantern said.

“We have a containment unit, right here,” Dr. Emil Hamilton said, gesturing. Green Lantern guided the cage over to the unit in question, and his construct’s bottom vanished, dropping the Black Mercy into the containment unit. Dr. Hamilton quickly sealed the containment unit, leaving the Black Mercy writhing inside, impotent.

Oliver, though, only had eyes for Laurel, who was laying beside him, looking very pale. “Laurel,” he said hoarsely. “Laurel! Wake up!”

Slowly, her eyelids fluttered, and then she turned her head green eyes meeting Oliver’s blue ones. “What did I tell you?” she whispered. “That thing had no power over me, over _us_.” Oliver smiled, then closed his eyes as a wave of nausea shot through him followed by ripples of pain in all of his extremities. He groaned in pain. “Ollie?”

“Everything hurts,” he muttered. “What the hell did that thing do to me?”

“Let’s find out,” Dr. Hamilton said professionally. Lex, stay. Everyone else, out. We have patients to examine.” The Justice League and Thea left the room, smiling and content in the knowledge that Oliver was out of the Black Mercy’s grip, while Oliver and Laurel would spend the next hour being examined thoroughly by the two geniuses, Oliver more than Laurel since he had been the one physically linked to the Black Mercy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* Man, writing these heart-felt speeches was heart-wrenching, knowing that Oliver would have to leave it all behind just like with the Dominators.
> 
> *2* One of the many failings of the Arrowverse was that they thought that exploring the psychological impact of what the heroes get involved in and do was unworthy of screentime. Asshats.
> 
> *3* It seems logical to me that the Black Mercy would try and prey on Oliver’s fear and his guilt to keep him trapped.


	63. Aftermath III

It was eight a.m. in Metropolis when Oliver Queen and the rest of the Justice League, those whose identities were not known in full uniform, gathered on the steps of City Hall, reporters crowding the sidewalk below them and shouting questions. Oliver raised a hand, and the reporters fell silent, one after the other. “I know many of you have questions,” Oliver said, “and they will be answered. First, there will be a statement by the person who actually led the Justice League during the Battle of Metropolis, seeing as I was incapacitated for the duration due to a cunning tactic by General Zod. Then we will have questions. Diana.”

Diana stepped forward. “Yesterday, General Zod started his campaign to conquer Earth by deploying an alien plant known as the Black Mercy to incapacitate Oliver,” Diana began. “Laurel instantly called Superman and got the ball rolling. After the Battle of Gotham, Oliver had set up a chain of command so that if he died or was otherwise incapacitated, there would be no confusion for the Justice League. He named me his second-in-command, citing my training on Themyscira and my long life experience as his reasoning. We all arrived in Metropolis through classified means and once we were certain this was where Zod would stage his attack, deployed our forces to work alongside the Department of Extranormal Operations, the government department set up to handle contact with aliens. Our non-powered forces, along with Laurel, protected the D.E.O. headquarters while our empowered forces, including our new recruit The Flash, protected the people of Metropolis as best we could and got them out of danger. After the Battle, we worked with Lex Luthor to end the Black Mercy’s hold on Oliver.” Diana stepped back.

Oliver inwardly grimaced. Diana’s penchant for truth meant she had exposed the D.E.O., which was intended to be a covert government agency. Then again, they hadn’t really been all that covert during either Amnesty Bay or Metropolis, so maybe it didn’t matter. “Before we call for questions, I want to say something,” he said, and the reporters straightened, waiting for the leader of the Justice League to deliver his own remarks. “Five months ago, I was in a confrontation with Malcolm Merlyn, and during that confrontation I told him that he was right, that the day might come when I died for what I believed in. But I also told him that night that I firmly believed that heroes would rise up to take their place as champions for the people of this world, those who, like me, believed that while life is full of darkness, that darkness can be defeated by the light. The Justice League fulfilled the promise of my words to Malcolm that night when they defended Metropolis even without me there, and I am more than proud of my friends.” He turned and smiled at his friends, who straightened slightly, before turning back to the men and women gathered on the sidewalk. “Questions?” he asked the reporters. **_*1*_**

“What exactly did the Black Mercy do to you, Mr. Queen?” Lois Lane asked from the front.

“It trapped me in what some might call the ‘perfect dream world’,” Oliver replied. “A world that was created from the deepest and most desperate desires of my heart, a world that I would want to believe in fully. Unfortunately, Zod and the Black Mercy underestimated the strength of mine and Laurel’s connection, our absolute trust in one another. When Laurel entered the dream world with the help of Lex Luthor and told me I was trapped in a dream world, I accepted it because it was _Laurel_ who was telling me this. I’m not sure I would have accepted it from anyone else. I might have even believed they were impostors.” Oliver knew it sounded sappy, but he wasn’t going to pretend that Laurel didn’t mean that much to him, especially so soon after having to leave a world where he was going to marry her, again.

“Has the Kryptonian army been completely defeated?” another reporter asked.

“We have cut their forces by half, but we estimate around one hundred Kryptonians are still free,” Oliver said. “However, they are scattered and may well be leaderless as General Zod and his two remaining commanders were killed during the Battle of Metropolis. Superman killed Zod, Wonder Woman killed Zod’s wife Faora, and the _Daily Planet’s_ own Lois Lane killed the Kryptonian commander named Non when he came after her in the hopes of punishing her for praising Superman and the Justice League.” Lois flushed at the attention that was turned her way while Superman looked uncomfortable. Diana merely looked on, content with her decision to kill Faora as it minimized the loss of life on both sides. “The D.E.O. will continue to keep watch for a renewed threat from the Kryptonian forces but, for the time being, they are scattered and leaderless.”

“Why did you choose Wonder Woman as your second-in-command?” one reporter asked.

“Because aside from Batman, who abstained from a leadership role, Diana is the most experienced hero on this team, including over that of myself,” Oliver said. “The President has placed me in charge of the Justice League, but I will certainly rely on the advice of Diana, who was trained in war for thousands of years before I was ever born and has lived through both World Wars. In my absence, she is not only the best option, but literally the only option to take command of the Justice League. Black Canary and Superman have only been at this mere months. Aquaman is a regent in his own right and cannot be subordinate to another country’s leadership. Green Lantern is trained to be a solo investigator and law enforcement agent, not a war commander.”

“And what about the new members of the team?” asked another reporter. “Who are they? How did they get approval to join the team so quickly?”

Oliver had discussed this with the president last night, and they had decided to go with the truth. “Nightwing, White Canary, and The Flash were hand-picked for a very special mission,” Oliver replied. “For centuries, our world, our destinies have been controlled by an organization that manipulated the timeline to fit their own agenda. The Legends, as this hand-picked team was called, were tasked with putting an end to those manipulations, and they have. Nightwing, White Canary, and The Flash have more than proven themselves worthy of joining the Justice League. The details of this mission are, unfortunately, classified.”

“Mr. Queen, are you saying that _time travel_ is possible and that these ‘Legends’ have been doing just that to fight this organization?” asked the same reporter.

“Yes,” Oliver said, knowing this wasn’t going to go over well.

He was right. The rest of the conference was spent fielding questions about time travel, how the Legends had done it, etc., all of which had the same answer: “Classified.” That didn’t go over well _at all_.

**_*DC*_ **

Sara Lance entered her mother’s office at Central City University a few days after the Battle of Metropolis, having made her way here in plain clothes with a Rockets cap pulled low to disguise her features. Her mother was hard at work grading papers. Sara swallowed hard and said, “Mom.”

Dinah looked up, startled, as Sara stepped into the office, pulling the Rockets cap off of her head. “Sara,” Dinah whispered in wonder. She stood up and approached her youngest. “I saw the news. I heard what you’ve been up to. I am so proud of you, Sara.” She hugged Sara, who had stiffened at hearing her words, because it confirmed the worst: there _was_ a double-standard with her parents regarding she and her sister. Well, Sara might not be able to get to Quentin just yet, but she could talk to Dinah and let her know she was a hypocritical bitch. “What’s wrong?” Dinah asked, feeling her daughter’s stiff form and pulling away, frowning in concern.

“You’re proud of me, huh?” Sara asked idly, her blue eyes cold. “See, that’s funny. I’ve done _one_ thing to be proud of. I am not a good person, Mom, though I’m trying to be. Laurel, on the other hand? She’s always been a good person. She is a hero in ways that I will never be, yet you called what she does ‘running around in a costume and screaming at people’. Well, let me tell you a couple of things about the daughter your so proud of. She betrayed her sister’s trust and slept with her boyfriend solely to hurt her sister, not because she was in love. She betrayed her friend, someone she had known her whole life, because she was suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. She killed people for three years without ever asking _why_ the person was slated to die.” Sara kept her gaze on her mother’s slowly horrified face. “Your other daughter, on the other hand? She was there for Dad even when he called her the daughter who lived in a way that implied he wished she was dead. She became the youngest lawyer in her graduating class. She turned down a very lucrative offer from a well-to-do law firm to help the poor and disenfranchised. She worked with a hero when everyone else called him a criminal. She stood side-by-side with the man that she loved against a terrifying threat. She became a hero who saves lives. And all you and Dad can do is scorn and revile her. _You make me sick!_ ”

“Sara, I…” Dinah trailed off, not sure what to say.

“Don’t bother trying to defend yourself,” Sara said tiredly. “I didn’t want to think there was a double-standard happening in our family. I _wanted_ us all to be together again. But that’s never gonna happen until you and Dad come to terms with who your daughters are now, and see us for who we are, warts and all. If you idealize us, you’re _always_ gonna be disappointed, Mom.” Sara rubbed her temples. “My boyfriend and I are gonna be moving to Central City in the coming weeks. But I don’t know how much of a relationship you and I are gonna have, if any, despite living in the same city. I just came to let you know that I’m not going to be pushing for our family to get back together anymore and to let you know I’m _not_ happy about what you and Dad have done to Laurel the past few months. Luckily, she’s had Ollie by her side to make her stronger. Bye, Mom.”

“Sara!” Dinah cried as her daughter left the office, pulling her Rockets cap back on and blending into the sea of students. Closing her office door, Dinah Drake Lance broke down for the second time following one of her daughters turning their back on her. The fact that the common denominator in all of this was her own hypocrisies didn’t even register with the mythology professor. **_*2*_**

**_*DC*_ **

Dinah Laurel Lance was alone in Lance Floral when the door opened. “Welcome to Lance Floral,” she said with a smile, turning to face the prospective customer, a Chinese woman in black.

“Hello, little bird,” the woman said, and terror gripped Laurel’s heart at the address even as she noted that the woman’s accent was distinctly American. “I’ve been following your progress for quite some time. I thought it was time we met.”

“Are you associated with the Huntsman?” Laurel asked, calculating how long it would take to get to the shotgun beneath the counter.

“No,” the woman replied.

“Then why call me little bird?” Laurel asked. The woman didn’t answer. “Okay, what do you want from me?”

“It’s not what I want from you, but for you,” the woman replied. “My name is Sandra Wu-San. I occasionally train people I determine to be worthy of my attention. You are such a person.”

“I’ve had training,” Laurel said slowly.

“Yes, from your sister and Oliver Queen,” Wu-San said. “Right now, you can fight ten men. Allow me to train you, and you will fight one hundred. Speak to Oliver Queen. Ask him about me. He will have heard stories, I am sure. I will return in twenty-four hours for your answer.” Wu-San turned and left the flower shop without another word. **_*3*_**

Laurel stared after her. Oliver was going to be here later today, but this morning he was going to be talking with Emiko about opening a Q-Core division in Central City. It was going to be a long wait to talk to her boyfriend about the mysterious visitor and her cryptic offer of training.

**_*DC*_ **

Oliver entered Emiko’s office, ignoring his sister’s executive assistant with practiced ease. Emiko, for her part, rolled her eyes as she gestured for him to take a seat. “So, any reason you’re dropping by and giving my executive assistant a reason to throw a fit about your lack of propriety?” Emiko asked dryly.

“I need you to open a Q-Core division in Central City,” Oliver replied, “and assign Barry Allen, Cisco Ramon, and Caitlin Snow to it. Caitlin would probably be a good fit to run the division.”

“Q-Core has limited value to the company, Oliver, seeing as it only outfits you and one government division,” Emiko said. “If I am going to open something like this, presumably for some Justice League business, then I need a business reason. What if we made it a hybrid division? Half Q-Core, half Applied Sciences? That way, it would turn a profit and not be a money pit. I know you think we can afford it, but there’s only so many money pits that can be opened before it starts cutting into our profit margin.”

“That sounds fair,” Oliver said agreeably.

“Alright, I’ll get Acquisitions to find a good building in Central City,” Emiko said. “Anything else while you’re here?”

“Nope,” Oliver said, standing. “Have a good day, Emiko.”

“A busy one, maybe,” Emiko quipped with a smile, gesturing to her paperwork. Oliver chuckled and left the office.

**_*DC*_ **

Diana Prince studied the map in front of her, laid out on the table of her apartment in New York City. The map was of the oceans surrounding Greece. With Zod defeated and peace restored to the world for the time being, Diana was preparing to launch a search for her homeland. It was time for the Amazons to reunite with Man’s World. Diana knew that it would take some time, and that she would face a great deal of resistance from her mother and the rest of the leadership, but she knew that this was what needed to happen. She had already spoken to Oliver about this and he had agreed to allow her a sabbatical from the Justice League while she searched for Themyscira. With any luck, she would find it quickly, though even if she did, it could take many months to convince her mother and sisters to rejoin Man’s World.

Diana didn’t plan on making it just a simple plea of words, though. She would take things with her to entice her sisters to at least consider the wonders that Man’s World now had to offer, and would testify under the power of the Lasso of Hestia as to the kinds of things at work in the world. The return of Atlantis, the future threats that mankind faced in the future Oliver had come from which may yet still happen, all of it. She was sure that she could convince them that now was the time for Themyscira to rejoin Man’s World.

The future depended on it.

**_*DC*_ **

Hal Jordan finished the paperwork that would allow him to take a one-month sabbatical from Ferris Air and leaned back in his chair. Hal had spoken to Oliver about the importance of getting the knowledge about the Crisis and other threats to Oa, as that would influence their decision on whether or not to recruit more Green Lanterns for Sector 2814. This was not something that could be made over a communication at Superman’s Fortress of Solitude, if only because the risk of interception of such transmissions were high. No, this required a personal touch, and Hal was the only one suited for the journey. He could be to Oa and back within a month, he was sure. Oliver had given him a sabbatical from the Justice League to make his reports.

The biggest concern for him, which he would broach with he Guardians, was that as far as Oliver knew, the Green Lanterns hadn’t done a damn thing when the Dominators had attacked Earth or when the Crisis had come. Something had to have happened, and Hal would bet his entire salary from Ferris Air that that something had to do with his former mentor, Sinestro. The only way to be prepared was to make sure the Corps was strong, and that meant they needed _more_ recruits for every sector so that if/when Sinestro made his move, they were ready and there would still be plenty of Lanterns to protect the people of every Sector.

The biggest obstacle right now? Convincing Carol that he would be back in a month.

**_*DC*_ **

Superman touched down on the balcony beside the bald billionaire. “Thank you for agreeing to meet with me,” Superman said to Lex Luthor.

“Well, when you’re told that the Man of Steel wants an audience, you make the time,” Lex said. “I assume this is about what I said before the Battle of Metropolis?”

“It is,” Superman said. “I’ve been thinking on it quite a bit. You’ve certainly earned some goodwill with me helping Oliver, and you are dedicated to defending the world from extra-terrestrial threats. You’re also the only human that seems to understand what Krypton’s scientists were talking about regarding the Black Mercy, which indicates you would probably understand other data entries.” Superman looked out across Metropolis. “I’ve surmised what you’re really after, Lex. You want access to the Kryptonian database I possess, to help usher in a golden age for humanity, bring Earth out of it’s backwater status so that it can be considered an equal by the denizens of the stars.”

“Yes, that’s right,” Lex said, unphased that Superman had guessed his intentions.

“Giving you full access would be a risk,” Superman said, “one I’m not willing to take right now. There is, however, a compromise that can be reached.”

“I’m listening,” Lex said.

“If you tell me what technologies you’re interested in, I can load that data onto flash drives like the one I used for the Black Mercy data,” Superman replied. “Over time, we can build up a trust and, eventually, I am sure I would feel comfortable giving you full access to the database I possess. I assume you’re not planning on exploring geo-thermal technologies?”

“No, I’ll be avoiding those,” Lex said. “I think every scientist in the world is avoiding those now that you’ve illuminated the risk.” Lex mulled over Superman’s offer. “I assume that, for the time being, weapons technologies will likewise be off the table?” Superman nodded. “Understandable. Well, why don’t we begin with medical technologies, something that can benefit everyone, be they human, alien, or Atlantean?”

“That sounds doable,” Superman said. “So, I guess this makes us partners of a sort.” He offered his hand.

“Yes, I believe it does,” Lex said, taking Superman’s hand and shaking it. “This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship, Superman. You and I? We’re going to change the world.” **_*4*_**

**_*DC*_ **

“What was the name, again?” Oliver asked, staring at Laurel intently.

“Sandra Wu-San,” Laurel replied. “She said you would’ve heard stories.”

“Yeah, I have,” Oliver said. “Sandra Wu-San is the real name of a world-renowned assassin called Lady Shiva. She is _the_ premier fighter, and she only trains those she deems worthy of her attention, and it takes something special to get her notice. Laurel, this is a woman who even Ra’s al Ghul respects and fears. She trained with the League, and she was the one woman in the history of the League that no man could touch. She didn’t kill them, which is the only thing that’s forbidden; she did leave them hurting and with the memory of what happened to them as a ‘taste’ of what she would do if they tried to touch her again. Suffice to say, they never did. If Lady Shiva is saying she wants to train you, then you _have_ to take the offer, Laurel. It will make you one of the best damn fighters in the world, even better than Ra’s al Ghul. You will be better than me, even, because Shiva doesn’t train in just one style like the League does, and she always teaches her students all that she knows in the hopes that one day one of them will surpass her and grant her a quick death.”

“What?” Laurel asked. “I can’t kill someone who trained me, Ollie.”

“I don’t think you’ll have to,” Oliver said. “Ra’s told me that Shiva has one strict rule: she doesn’t fight any student that she believes has been enhanced since in her eyes it wouldn’t be a fair duel, and she wants to die in a fair duel. You’re enhanced, Laurel. She is offering to train you without requiring you to pay the price her students typically have to pay. That’s a rare offer, indeed. Please, Laurel, take it; you won’t regret it, and I’ll sleep better knowing that you’re going to end up a better fighter than I have ever been or ever will be.”

“Maybe you could come with me?” Laurel suggested.

“No,” Oliver said. “If Shiva was going to approach me for training, she would have when I defeated Malcolm. I don’t have whatever it is she looks for in a student. You do. And I love that fact. Please, Laurel. Do this. For yourself if for no other reason. You will not regret it.”

“But Ollie, you’re still struggling with what the Black Mercy did to you,” Laurel said, worrying her lower lip. “I don’t want to leave you if you’re going to be struggling.”

“Laurel, I survived for five years in worse conditions than being denied a happy ending,” Oliver replied, “and I know that one day, you and I _are_ going to be the people we were in that dream world. We _are_ going to get married. It’s a certainty, and my love for you will not wane if you leave to become the best version of yourself. If anything, I’ll love you even more. Go. Take the offer.”

“Alright,” Laurel finally said. “But promise me one thing. If it gets to be too much, get help. Don’t suffer in silence. In fact, I’m making it a requirement that you see Dr. Green if I’m going to do this. I won’t leave you in this state without knowing you’re getting help.” Her jaw was set stubbornly, and Oliver knew that he wasn’t going to be able to convince her otherwise.

“Okay,” he said quietly. “I promise I’ll call Dr. Green, schedule an appointment, and see her for however long you’re gone.” Oliver cupped Laurel’s face in his hands and kissed her, a long, searing kiss filled with as much love as he could summon. He pulled away, leaving them both flustered and emotional. “However long it takes you, I’ll be waiting, my pretty bird.”

**_*DC*_ **

Forty-eight hours later, Oliver Queen was in his empty apartment, feeling a little hollow inside. Laurel was gone, off to train with Lady Shiva for who knew how long, but that wasn’t what had him feeling this way. No, he had received a message from Director Lane, detailing the final body count of the Battle of Metropolis. 251 people had died in that fight, just as 251 people had died in Gotham. 502 people in all had died in this new timeline who _hadn’t_ died in the last timeline. “Time fights back,” he whispered, breathing ragged. He poured himself a brandy and then went out on the balcony, looking out across his city, at the undestroyed Glades, and wondered what the bloody point of it was if he couldn’t change the big things. 502 people were still dead in massive attacks.

When he had first arrived in this time in October, he had had a plan. Change things slowly, with the first major change being him capturing or killing the Dark Archer when the latter made his move and took hostages to force a confrontation. But then everything had begun happening, piling up until the only choice he had to keep the world he was forging intact was to kill Eobard Thawne and destroy the timeline that he had come from completely along with his friends. Ever since then, it had been one successive change after another. The discovery of the _Gambit_ , his mother’s suicide, Walter’s murder, becoming C.E.O. of Queen Consolidated, the mob war, being exposed as Green Arrow by Tommy, going on the run for two weeks, killing Malcolm on live television and earning a pardon and a new position from the President, Superman’s debut, the arrival of Fort Rozz, Amnesty Bay, Gotham, Metropolis…

“I don’t recognize this world anymore,” Oliver whispered to himself, and took a drink, allowing the alcohol to sear its way down his gullet and settle in his stomach, giving him a warm, pleasant feeling in his torso. He turned and went back inside, continuing to drink and consider all that had happened, all that had changed, and wondering if there truly was a place in the world for a vigilante like him anymore. **_*5*_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.
> 
> Chapter Notes:
> 
> *1* Seeing as this story is the second half of Season 1, it felt appropriate to bring up a plot point from what was essentially the mid-season finale, that being Oliver’s words about other heroes who would carry on his mission, his beliefs should he die.
> 
> *2* I hope that everyone enjoyed the confrontation Sara had with Dinah. That’s been something people have been wanting to see for a while, since Sara’s encounter with Laurel and Oliver’s many-times great-grandchildren if not before. It was very therapeutic to write since Sara was written so poorly when it came to acknowledging the problems in her family and especially her own faults re: Laurel until the people she’s hurt are gone. I like Sara, but I won’t deny she’s been a crappy sister to Laurel and daughter to Quentin in canon.
> 
> *3* Been planning the Lady Shiva thing for a while, with the help of Nyame and Okoriwadsworth.
> 
> *4* And so, the doomed friendship of Clark Kent/Superman and Lex Luthor begins.
> 
> *5* This is more set-up for Volume III, which is really going to be a back-to-basics kind of story to help Oliver see that, yes, he still has a place in this strange and terrifying new world of modern-day gods and monsters.


	64. Afterword

So, here we are at the end of another book. This is the first time that I have ever finished a novel-length sequel to a novel-length project. Done plenty of one-shot/long-shot sequels, but _never_ something like this. For those who are counting, I have essentially written the equivalent of _five_ epic science fiction novels in terms of words (an epic sci-fi novel being roughly 100,000 words and _Rise_ and _Age_ combined equaling 500,000 words). That is _a lot_ of writing to do in nine months (December-present), and I am definitely feeling the wear and tear now. But I wouldn’t have it any other way, because this is an exciting journey, and one I’m more than willing to continue on the road of with the rest of you.

Before I go any further, I want to thank the members of the Lauriver Discord, especially RayWrites, Nyame, Okoriwadsworth, and TheWhiteWolf for their continued friendship and guidance in helping me make _The Age of Heroes_ into the best possible version of the story that I wanted to tell and for encouraging me when I hit the lows of my bi-polar. All of you helped tremendously.

Now, for those who have read the preface, you know that _a lot_ changed in the story once I started writing it, one of the biggest changes being that the Ninth Circle were contracted to kill the 502 people who died in the Undertaking rather than Talia’s League of Shadows. I debated back and forth on this (which is one reason I left it vague as to what Talia’s answer was), but ultimately decided that Talia put too much effort into tracking Oliver down and forging him into the man he became to give up on her student now, no matter how disappointing he might seem at the moment. Once that was decided, the Ninth Circle became the obvious choice because it was too soon to bring in H.I.V.E.

In the end, though, this story became about the formation of the Justice League and the initial threats they faced that forged them into force they were intended to be. I was trying to keep generally to the storyline of the first season up until Amnesty Bay. Once that happened, well, I believe Leonard Snart’s final method of planning works here: “throw away the plan!” Once that happened, I needed to make an all new plan, which I stuck to for the most part, then my depression got the better of me for a while and I threw away the new plan with only a couple of episodes left to go. Then I decided to do the planning thing again, which is how we got what is the final version of the Battle of Metropolis and the aftermath. One of the biggest things in that was the choice I made regarding who would be leading the charge in the Battle of Metropolis. Once I had Zod attack Oliver with the Black Mercy, I knew that I would have to keep Oliver out of commission until the Battle was over, because if he woke up in the middle of the battle, he would seek Zod out. I even made a plan for that if that happened, which would’ve led to Oliver defeating Zod instead of Clark, but Oliver would’ve been savagely beaten as a result and require months of recovery and physical therapy to get back into fighting shape. So I tossed that plan out the window and went with what we got.

Oliver’s journey in this story has been about finding out what his limits are as a warrior and as a leader. It was also about him learning to open up and trust those who have chosen to follow his example and join him in defending the world from the much stranger world. I hope I handled that suitably well.

Laurel’s journey was by far the most interesting for me to write as I took her from the overeager apprentice she was at the beginning of the story and turned her into the Black damn Canary, as well as exploring her filial ties and just how dysfunctional her relationship with her family actually is. This was, in part, thanks to many discussions on the Lauriver Discord surrounding the dynamic of the Lance family and the admitted double standard that seems to be in place re: Laurel and Sara and how they are perceived by their parents and, indeed, most everyone else in canon. I also wanted to continue building up Laurel’s self-confidence and sense of self-worth, and I hope I accomplished that.

One of the things that happens when you try new things is that you learn what you can do and what you can’t do. I learned when writing the big battles that happened in this volume that I _can’t_ write group battle scenes; the Battle of Amnesty Bay made this painfully aware to me, and so when I next had to do a big Battle, Gotham, I focused on individual fights and found that that flowed better, which is why I continued in that vein with the Battle of Metropolis. Considering my fight scenes in _Rise_ were _all_ individual fights, it makes sense that this is where my strength lies.

I also learned more about writing different characters by including perspectives from the rest of the Justice League and some of their associates, along with an assortment of villains, and I admit, I leaned heavily on the Lauriver Discord and especially those with a greater comics knowledge than I when doing things from the perspective of characters like Hal Jordan and when introducing the likes of Lady Shiva. With regards to the latter, I must again thank Nyame and Okoriwadsworth in particular for their help in getting the character’s voice right since I have never written the character before now. I only had to make a couple of changes, which was nice to have.

I will admit that Barry becoming The Flash was a last-minute decision inspired from a conversation with Okori where he basically asked if I was going to have Barry fight as Chronos on Oliver’s team for the next seven years in-universe. It got me thinking, and in the end, I realized Barry would be more interesting if he became The Flash now instead of in 2020, even if he’ll be very bored dealing with mostly petty crime since there won’t be many metahumans for him to fight (so don’t expect too much from Barry in Volume III aside from the occasional peek into his and Sara’s lives in Central City). 

Now, one bit of news I’m sure some of you are wondering about is, “When is Volume III going to drop?” I will be honest: I don’t know. I could wake up tomorrow and begin pounding away on Volume III, or I could end up focusing almost entirely on _The Green Arrow Chronicles_ for a little while. I do know what Volume III will be about, and I know the title, which I will drop here. The official Volume III of _Arrow: Rebirth_ is titled _The Children of the Glades,_ a title that will ring certain bells with long-time readers. It will be a back-to-basics story for Oliver as he struggles to find his place in the new world order as his second year as a vigilante in the new timeline commences. He won’t be alone in this struggle as Quentin will be back and the two of them will be working together on one of the main plot points of _Children_.

Also, at this point, I am intending for _Children_ to cover the entirety of Year Two instead of just up to the mid-season finale, as I have done with Year One. It was necessary to split Year One into two parts considering the content was completely different. But there are three or four main plots planned for _Children_. There are other volumes that are in the pipeline which will be limited in when they take place and how long of a time it takes, but _Children_ is currently planned to take up the entirety of Season 2 (albeit a very _different_ Season 2) and Volume IV is currently likely to take up the entirety of a very different Season 3. Beyond that, I have no specific plans.

However, it is going to be quite some time before we see _Children_. Working on two projects at a time is, in all honesty, very stressful since you have to try and keep straight what happens in which story, and eventually the lines begin to blur. So, after some debate, I am going to focus on _The Green Arrow Chronicles_ up until the equivalent of the end of Volume I, which like _Rise_ will be signified by Malcolm’s defeat and the immediate aftermath. That’s not to say I might not work on _Children_ from time-to-time, especially if the Muse strikes, but I won’t be _posting it_ until after I’ve had Oliver defeat Malcolm in _Chronicles_. From now on, I am probably only going to work on one project at a time, so there’s every chance I work on _Chronicles_ and then _Emerald Archer_ before focusing on _Children_. We’ll see what happens.

Well, that’s all for now. I hope to see all of you over in _Chronicles_.


	65. An Announcement

This is very difficult for me, because I came so far with this series. But I had a realization recently, a story-breaking realization that has pretty much crippled any chance of _Arrow: Rebirth_ ever managing to get back on track. The story-breaking realization came about as a result of some critical thinking I was doing while trying to write the new Volume III, which led to me thinking about the first two volumes, and that led to the fact that the entire basis of _The Age of Heroes_ is based on the idea that the Council of Time Masters was restored due to Oliver killing Eobard Thawne or that they were even a threat at all after Oliver was sent back in time. This basis was a foolish one, because of one simple truth: the Council’s base, the Vanishing Point, exists _outside_ of time and space. Therefore, their fate and the fate of the Vanishing Point would remain the same no matter how many changes were made to the timeline. The Council is dead, and they would have stayed dead.

Nyame, who has helped quite a bit on both this series and the reimagining we’re working on together, made another good point. The whole basis for the entire Riseverse was that time would fight back against the changes Oliver was making and that he would never truly change important things, like the 502 deaths or, more than likely, any other massive acts of death that occurred in canon (like the deaths caused by the destruction of Darhk’s ark). This pigeonholed the writing, made it limited, strangled it in a way, and that ultimately has led to the fact that I can no longer write this series. It’s sad, because I had a number of ideas that I was looking forward to using. I’ll be trying to incorporate as many of them into the _Forging A Better Future_ series as I can without making use of time travel since that is essentially what killed this series.

I will be leaving _Rise_ and _Age_ up for the sake of posterity, to show where the _Forging A Better Future_ series came from.


End file.
